Testing centres in Sydney's west were near-deserted on Friday morning in stark contrast to the long late-night queues to get swabbed in the eastern suburbs at the beginning of the city's Covid-19 outbreak.
New South Wales health officials on Thursday pleaded for higher testing rates in the Fairfield, Liverpool and Canterbury-Bankstown local government areas.
Of the outbreak's latest 38 cases, 21 were found in the city's south-west as transmission of the highly-contagious Delta strain shifted away from the eastern suburbs where the outbreak began last month.
Police patrols are meanwhile being ramped up in Sydney's south-west to 'ensure compliance' with the city's strict stay-at-home three-week lockdown.
Only a few cars though could be seen at the drive-through testing centre at Club Marconi in Bossley Park - a suburb designated high-risk in the Fairfield LGA - at 8am, 30 minutes before it opened.
There were also no residents waiting to get swabbed at the Fairfield Hospital walk-in testing centre half an hour after the doors to the clinic opened at 8.30am.
By comparison, long lines of motorists were seen queueing at the Bondi Beach drive-through testing centre until as late as 10pm on June 16.
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New South Wales health officials on Thursday pleaded for residents in the city's south-west to get swabbed but this site was sitting empty at 8am on Friday morning
By comparison, there were long lines at the Bondi drive-through testing clinic on the evening of June 16 after the outbreak began in the eastern suburbs. The testing centre was open until 10pm that night
Confirmation of the outbreak's 'patient zero' that day - an airport limousine driver who transported international flight crews - led to the centre extending its opening hours from 4pm to 10pm to accomodate the surge.
Photos showed dozens of motorists lining up in the darkness that night to find out if they too had contracted Covid-19.
Images of the near-empty testing centres came as NSW Police Deputy Commissioner Mal Lanyon hit back at claims the tougher enforcement in south-west Sydney unfairly targeted the area.
The epicentre suburbs in the
