ACT still holding off on further relaxation of COVID restrictions

NSW will still loosen its restrictions on Wednesday despite a spike in COVID-19 cases. The state reported 804 cases on Tuesday, the highest daily tally for the state in more than two months.

ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith did not express concern about NSW's relaxed restrictions but stated the ACT would not follow.

Last month the ACT government had flagged the territory could follow NSW in implementing these changes but this was halted after the emergence of Omicron.

NSW will also drop mask requirements in most settings, which is in line with measures already in place in the territory.

"We have been monitoring what NSW was intending to do from tomorrow, given the increase in the number of Omicron cases and now we've seen obviously this increase overall in NSW case numbers," Ms Stephen-Smith said.

"We are not intending to change our check-in requirements at this point in time.

"We've decided to leave those check-ins in place because they are a really good support for our test, trace, isolate and quarantine in light of the emergence of the Omicron variant in Australia and what does appear to be it's significantly increases transmissibility."

There are 12 Omicron cases in the ACT and there are 320 close contacts of the variant currently in isolation.

The ACT reported four new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, with two of the cases acquired overseas. Thee number of active cases currently in the territory is 60.

It came as Ms Stephen-Smith announced the drive-through testing site at Exhibition Park would close, with a new site to open up at Tooth Street in Mitchell.

The EPIC drive-through testing site will be closed from 10am on Friday.

The testing centre has been operational since March 2020 and was the first drive through site. Ms Stephen-Smith said the team had conducted almost 250,000 tests at EPIC.

"Over time, it's been busier, it's been quieter, but it's always been there for us and it's been absolutely a fantastic facility for Canberrans," she said.

"But it is time for us to get back to a more normal summer and part of that more normal summer is having EPIC available for large events."

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The first major event to be held at EPIC following the departure of the testing site is expected to be Summernats, which will held in the second week of January.

The Tooth Street site will be smaller, and will come as the EPIC site has seen a spike in demand in recent weeks. Waiting times at the facility have consistently been longer than one hour.

However, Ms Stephen-Smith said testing capacity could surge up if it is needed.

"Of course, we will continue to keep Canberrans updated on what the waiting times are across our centres when there is a bit of an increase in demand," she said.

"We'll manage the resources, we've been managing resources according to demand throughout the last 18 months so when it's been quieter we've managed to reduce the number of people who are doing that testing job and when it's busier we can ramp up those resources."

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