Lines stretching hundreds of metres are swamping the drive-through testing sites as thousands of people come forward to get tests.

Ballarat will re-enter a harsh lockdown at midnight tonight (Wednesday), with people only allowed to leave their homes for five reasons.

It will be Ballarat's eighth lockdown - the only place in Australia to have encountered so many separate lockdowns.

Both the Marty Busch Reserve testing site in Sebastopol and the 4Cyte Pathology in Skipton Street have recorded enormous queues all day.

See all the exposure sites here.

Rachael, who works in retail in Ballarat, says she turned up to the Marty Busch site at 9am, and was still waiting for her test at 3.15pm.

"The traffic was already backed up on to the main road, right out near where the Coles is," Rachael told The Courier.

"I'm guessing there's probably still about 35 cars in front of me wanting to be waiting to be tested. I'm thinking it's probably going to be six-and-a-half, maybe even pushing into seven hours. They look like they're doing maybe four cars every 10 minutes."

While Rachael says she feels unlikely she has contracted COVID, she does show some symptoms, so she hasn't left her car in the whole wait.

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"I thought, 'Look, I've got some symptoms, I want to do the right thing.' And I know that if there's exposure sites and possibly more people in Ballarat, I want to do the right thing and make sure that I get tested."

Despite the extended wait, and a lack of information about wait times, Rachael says people are keeping their temper and behaving good-naturedly.

"People are behaving a lot better than I would expect, actually. There are people kind of getting out of their car and having a bit of a stretch every now and again. But everyone seems to be pretty calm and understanding that the testers are obviously doing the best that they can," she says.

"No-one's able to give us wait times or anything like that. It's just the guys directing traffic. The line of cars behind me... I can't even see the end of the line. There's just absolutely no way all these people are going to be able to be tested. They're going to have to send people home who have already been waiting for hours."

Ballarat Health Services has issued a social media post, acknowledging local testing sites are under high demand and waiting times at drive-through clinics are extended.

'Please only seek testing today if you have symptoms, have visited a Tier 1 and Tier 2 exposure site at the dates and times listed, or have been identified as a close contact of a confirmed case,' the post says.

'If you don't have symptoms and if you have not attended a Tier 1 or Tier 2 exposure site please wait to get tested - we will let you know when you should come and get tested.

'Further testing sites are in the process of being set up in Ballarat. We will update the community as soon as details of these sites are confirmed.'

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