An essential worker has spoken out after she got a COVID test over the weekend, only to be given someone else's result.
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Kerri Rawsthorne was tested at 9.30am in Orange on Sunday and said there were no other cars there. But in the early hours of Wednesday morning, she received a text to say she was negative...except it was addressed to another woman, prompting Ms Rawsthorne to believe it is the wrong result.
"It wasn't like they were busy and I know at the moment we're in major panic, but at that time we weren't in lockdown and there were no cars there and my name isn't even close to Leila," she said.
"I don't know if the tube samples have been swapped, I don't even know what the mix up is."
- READ MORE: Central West police launch operation following Orange COVID lockdown
- She said she rang the number provided in the text message only for it to say it was not in service.
"If I can't get someone on the phone, If I can't get the Government body on the phone we might have a whole batch of people who have the wrong information," she said.
"I had every faith in the system, I have no faith now. I have every faith in my doctor but none in the Government's system."
A NSW Health spokeswoman said they were pleased to see so many tests being undertaken.
"In the past week, nearly 480,000 COVID-19 tests have been carried out in NSW, including a record 81,970 on Saturday," she said.
"NSW Health is very pleased to see this sustained high rate of testing, and thanks the community for being tested. However, this has put pressure on some private labs, who have been a vital support to the testing effort.
"There is no delay in the delivery of positive results. Once a positive result is detected by a lab, it is always reported immediately to the relevant public health unit and/or referring doctor.
"The average time for someone to receive their results from a private lab currently ranges from 18 to 28 hours.
"NSW Health is working closely with private pathology to ensure the turnaround times for receipt of results are improved and throughput is maintained.
"This is a challenging time for everyone, and we appreciate people's patience."
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