Drivers lining up before 4 a.m. at COVID-19 testing centre in Vancouver

Vancouver -

British Columbia's COVID-19 testing frenzy started early on Thursday, with some test-seekers arriving at a Vancouver collection site before 4 a.m.

By the time the St. Vincent Collection Centre opened at 8 a.m., there was a lineup of more than 200 vehicles stretching for blocks. Frustrated drivers honked their horns amid confusion about where the line actually ended.

The testing site's estimated wait times topped five hours by the early afternoon.

Many of the people lined up told CTV News they were trying to get a negative result for Christmas, but didn't have symptoms – something provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry has tried to discourage to avoid overwhelming testing staff.

The government has urged people to use its online self-assessment tool before heading out to a busy testing centre.

Dr. Sarah Otto of the independent B.C. COVID-19 Modelling Team said the sharp increase in transmission recorded over the past week is also straining the province's resources.

"Testing capacity is being overwhelmed by the Omicron spike in cases," said Otto.

"The only way we're going to have a good sense of how many people have Omicron is if we add capacity beyond PCR tests, for example through rapid antigen tests."

Many of the people lined up at St. Vincent on Thursday were handed rapid antigen tests.

B.C. is receiving a shipment of 500,000 test kits next week, and will be getting millions more in January. Officials have said they don't plan to do broad public giveaways like the ones in Ontario and Quebec, and will instead continue rationing the rapid tests out where they believe they are needed most.

Henry said those kinds of giveaways tend to result in tests being "rapidly taken up by people who have the agency to get them."

"How we'll continue to use them will be to manage people who actually have symptoms of COVID and need to know what they're dealing with to help with the management of their medical condition," she said Tuesday.

With files from CTV News Vancouver's Regan Hasegawa