The site, created by Jye Lewis and his wife Katie from South Sydney, provides details on how long people can expect to wait at testing clinics in the region, allowing people to judge whether to join a queue or not.

The website www.covidtestfinder.com.au/ relies on submitted information from people who have recently visited the clinics.

The website is easy to use. Just adjust the map's view and select the type of clinic you'd like to use.

With PCR testing rules once again changing, it's anticipated that wait times for COVID-19 testing clinics will return to pre Christmas levels, but the guide could still come in handy for those who'd rather not be stuck in a queue.

The site also provides information on opening hours and lab turnaround time.

With many people in the Illawarra continuing to report that they are waiting up to six to eight days for test result, lab turnaround times are key.

Jye said he and Katie spent a day building the site: "We were just out for a walk on Sunday chatting about some of the Instagram pages leveraging their follower base to share COVID-19 wait times and how great an idea it was.

The conversation flowed into how we could improve the process, and try to provide some useful information on which clinics would be most useful for people (open hours, accessibility, wait times etc).

"It took about a day to build, and we published it on Sunday night. The last few days we have made some minor adjustments to the site as people have made suggestions."

On the Mercury's facebook page many readers said they had been stuck in isolation for many days waiting for their PCR test results.

Jessica Marie said she had been waiting for more than a week. "Have been waiting for nine days! Absolutely ridiculous. Family of five stuck in isolation. There is only so much we can do to entertain ourselves," she said.

Craig Jackson said: "We are almost four days, have symptoms and are really sick. But still nothing. This is an absolute joke. We have done the right thing and isolating until we get results. Other areas are getting results in under 24 hours."

But Judy Hedger mentioned she'd had a good experience with results returned swiftly. "I had no trouble waited 10 minutes on Tuesday morning and had my result back early hours of wed morning," She said. "[It was] very well organised. Well done all the staff at Towradgi testing. Very friendly staff. Thank you for all your hard work."

Karla James also had a fast turnaround. She said: "Warrawong testing clinic got results in 12 hours."

Vea Taufa agreed: "That's where I went and yes, results back within 24hrs. My older kids went to Berkeley and are on day 8 today with no results still."

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