The first person in line at the Brandon coronavirus test site was there at 6:30 a.m. Tuesday.
By 8 a.m., at least 40 cars had joined the line behind him, all in an effort to avoid the massive lineups seen the day before.
The site opened at 8:45 a.m.
People waiting in line Monday at the Brandon drive-thru community testing site at the Town Centre Parkade waited for hours.
A cluster of cases in Brandon over the past several days has people scrambling to be tested in the Manitoba city.
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Dr. Brent Roussin, the province’s chief public health officer, said Monday there were now more than 60 known cases in one cluster in Brandon, and there were 196 active cases in the province, which is a record high.
A second testing site in Brandon will open on Wednesday at the Keystone Centre grounds with hours of operation the same as the Town Centre location, said Prairie Mountain Health.
“Clients may choose the site they prefer to go to (Town Centre or Keystone Centre), however they may be re-directed to the other site in order to help balance lineups and shorten wait times,” PMH said in a statement.
“PMH asks individuals who are not symptomatic or who have not been directed by Public Health or
Occupational Health to be tested, to please refrain from coming to the Brandon test sites at this time.”
One woman in line Tuesday morning told Global News the increase of cases was bound to happen.
“A lot of people did let their guard down, and that’s why we’ve got a few cases,” she said. “It’s nothing that we can’t control.”
— with files from Abigail Turner
© 2020 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
