Demand for testing on the rise

Demand at the Weston Creek walk-in centre on Friday appeared to be on the rise, with Canberrans reporting waiting hours to be tested in a full waiting room.

It came after a man in his 30s was confirmed as the ACT's first case of the virus on Thursday.

On Friday, ACT chief health officer Kerryn Coleman would not reveal details of the man's movements, and it remained unclear where he picked up the virus.

The man had not been overseas in the last 14 days but had travelled interstate.

When asked if he visited any public places in Canberra while infectious, like shopping centres, she said the man "visited various places".

"We've made an assessment of those places and got in touch with those people who are considered to be close contacts," she said.

"The assessment that we have made is that the places that they visited in the time that they have been present there does not pose a high risk of exposure to the public or to the community."

Dr Coleman said authorities were still investigating where he might have become infected with the virus, with the man recently travelling interstate.

"We're working with those jurisdictional public health units to understand if there might have been any COVID-19 cases or any risk of exposure during those periods of time," she said.

The ACT does not yet have any dedicated coronavirus testing centres, but people who are concerned they need to be tested have been told to call their GP or attend the Weston Creek walk-in centre. Patients who attended the centre on Friday reported an almost full waiting room "making it difficult to find a seat".

Eric Chalmers chose to wait outside while busy nurses called the mix of young and old men and women for their 30 second throat and nose swab.

The 73-year-old Duffy man had recently returned from a conference in Stockholm, which was attended by delegates from more than 80 countries, and developed cold symptoms in the past few days.

While he had postponed his grandchildren's weekend visit from Melbourne, Mr Chalmers said he felt the public had panicked "far too much" about coronavirus.

"Toilet paper stocking is the craziest thing," he said.

"Humans, we react to the strange things. Yet a lot of the time we don't do the things that make a lot of sense."

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James Gosman, 31, said his doctor had sent him to the centre after developing flu-like symptoms, but was turned away at the door by a triage nurse.

He said he was renting a house with five others in Kambah, one room which had been occupied by several visitors who had booked through Airbnb that week.

"My dad is 65 years old. If I do have something, I don't want to spread it to them," he said.

Official advice is that patients only need to get tested if they have travelled overseas or have come in contact with a known case, and are displaying symptoms.

It is still unclear when dedicated testing centres will be established in the ACT.

Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said the Weston Creek walk-in centre was now essentially dedicated to testing. She asked people attending walk-in centres for other reasons than the virus to consider going to other locations.

Ms Stephen-Smith said Calvary Public Hospital was considering setting up its own dedicated testing centre. She said there were plans in place to double Canberra's ICU capacity, with specifics to be announced on the weekend.

As of 3pm Friday, 648 people in the ACT had returned a negative test.