St Vincent's amplifies COVID response You are here:HomeNewsroomNews St Vincent's amplifies COVID response 28 Jun 2021 St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney has played a central role in responding to the Bondi COVID Cluster which has engulfed NSW. This response has centred around scaling-up both testing capacity and its vaccination capabilities, particularly in supporting inner-Sydney’s vulnerable populations. Since the onset of COVID, the Hospital’s pathology arm SydPath, has conducted almost 500,000 COVID tests. One of the busiest testing sites in Australia, the St Vincent’s Bondi drive-thru clinic has been testing up to 4,000 people per day in response to the rising amount of local hot-spots being identified. St Vincent’s also rapidly stood up a Rushcutter’s Bay testing clinic in addition to its existing East Sydney Clinic, to support testing for the surrounding hot-spots. In Western Sydney, SydPath has established testing sites at Rouse Hill, Castle Hill, Merrylands, Carlingford, and Fairfield. SydPath has created a Northern Beaches mass testing site at Forestville, and established a pop-up site at Moree in response to the temporary shortage of testing capacity there. Back on Campus, the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) has been reinstated and is currently resourced seven days per week. The EOC are redoubling their efforts to maximise preparedness for any surge of COVID-19 patients, with an emphasis on keeping our staff safe. Additionally, St Vincent’s has been operating a dual Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccination hub at the Hospital for both staff and the community, but in addition it has been going out to the community to help vaccinate the vulnerable, including aged-care residents, and inner-Sydney’s rough-sleepers. The multi-agency response, adopted by St Vincent’s, City of Sydney, St Vincent de Paul and other front-line NGO’s saw the establishment of a vaccination clinic at Woolloomooloo next to Matthew Talbot Hostel which has vaccinated close to a thousand rough-sleepers. This collaborative approach is being replicated at other sites throughout NSW to help ensure our most vulnerable are prioritised. These achievements are possible because of our talented and dedicated teams who live and breathe our mission to serve. Thank you. St Vincent's Rushcutters Pop-up Clinic Swab Squad member: Image courtesy of Getty Images