As the territory conducted a record 7380 Covid tests on Monday, ACT Australian Medical Association President Walter Abhayaratna argued there was an untapped workforce ready to join the fight.

An initial seven-day lockdown in the ACT was extended to three weeks on Monday, and another 17 Covid cases on Tuesday took the territory's outbreak to 45.

Nurses were already a feature of the ACT's vaccination and Covid testing, and talks were also ongoing over adding students to the effort.

Dr Abhayaratna has called for the process to be expedited given Delta's record of exponential growth.

"Let's get on with it because it may well be necessary by the end of the week anyway," he told The Canberra Times.

"I'm aware that efforts are being made to roll out nursing vaccinations, which is great.

"But it's not clear why the other student groups are not involved, when all hands need to be on deck."

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The first night of lockdown was marred by testing queues lasting up to eight hours, as many Canberrans were turned away without being tested.

The ACT government has discussed making drive-in sites at EPIC and Brindabella accessible around-the-clock.

But Dr Abhayaratna cautioned against sidelining the vaccination effort as attention turned to meeting contact tracing and testing demands.

"We need to keep the vaccinations going, because that's our way forward to phases B and C of the national plan," he said.

"In order to sustain the work, we have a workforce that is willing and could be enabled.

"That workforce includes medical students and nursing students from all universities."

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Dr Abhayaratna argued that would enable focus on vaccinating the young, saying the ACT had been leading other jurisdiction in vaccinating the elderly.

By Monday 95 per cent over over 70s in the ACT had received at least one Covid vaccine dose, while 65 per cent were fully vaccinated.

"That will reduce the chances of people requiring hospital, people dying, and being hospitalised for severe Covid infection," Dr Abhayaratna said.

ACT Pharmacy Guild president Simon Blacker stressed regulations prohibited pharmacy students from administering vaccines.

He said there were relatively few pharmacy students in the ACT, but their deployment could boost tracing and testing.

"If the ACT government's needing to find resources, and there's a capable cohort of people that could assist, I think it's all hands on deck," he said.

But Mr Blacker warned the students already accounted for 10 to 15 per cent of the workforce.

They were increasingly vital with around 30 pharmacies across the ACT already administering the AstraZeneca vaccine, he said.

"These students may already be working in community pharmacies, providing a critical service in keeping the pharmacies open and assisting people with their health needs," he said.

It comes as ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith urged Canberrans with a nursing background to join the territory's effort.

"If you're not currently working as part of the COVID-19 response, please do get in contact with Canberra Health Services," she said on Tuesday.

"They would love to hear from people who want to reinvigorate their nursing capacity, to support the response to the pandemic."

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