SYDNEY/MELBOURNE: Australia will seek immediate changes to COVID-19 testing rules to ease pressure on testing sites as infections rise and daily cases are reported to have nearly doubled in the country’s most populous state.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison On Wednesday Australia needed “a gear change” to manage overburdened laboratories and get people out of isolation. He called an urgent meeting of the national cabinet on Thursday.
“We can’t take everyone out of vogue just because they’re in a particular place at a particular time,” Morrison said during a media briefing.
Morrison’s plan would prioritize medically urgent cases to cut down on long lines at testing sites and wait for lab results, which currently can take three to four days.
The proposed rules would rely more on rapid antigen tests, redefine close contacts of confirmed cases to those living in the same household, and require only PCR Testing for people with symptoms. Close contacts will have to isolate for seven days.
Several countries, including the United States and Britain, have shortened the recommended isolation time for asymptomatic cases.
The proposed new testing requirements come as Queensland promised to ease rules for interstate travelers with domestic arrivals, who required only a negative rapid antigen test to gain entry from 1 January instead of a PCR test.
Morrison said $375 million ($271 million) would be used to buy millions of additional rapid antigen testing kits.
Queensland’s so-called “tourism test” faced strong criticism from New South Wales, as holiday travelers crowded its testing centres, delaying results by several days.
‘its madness’
Even with rising infections, some testing centers in Sydney were closed after public holidays and those that were open had long walks and drive-in queues.
“This is madness,” 44-year-old Hayden Anderson, who is battling liver cancer, told Reuters. “Why are all testing centers closed?”
Anderson had a PCR test after he was caught with a friend just before Christmas tested positive. When he went for a follow-up test, the site was closed.
After seeing long lines at other testing centres, he agreed to a rapid antigen test at home, but with the rising number of cases he is concerned that he may struggle to get the PCR test as needed, before his next chemotherapy appointment on January 11. Can do.
“It’s like a tightrope right now,” he said.
Australia vulnerable to outbreak of highly contagious omicron The variant, with the country’s new daily infections of around 18,300, eclipses the previous pandemic’s tally of nearly 11,300 hit on Tuesday.
Cases in most states climbed to a one-day record with New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state and home of Sydney, reported a near doubling in infections to 11,201.
Despite the rapid spread of the Omicron version, Morrison has so far ruled out a lockdown, urging people to focus on the number of patients admitted to hospitals.
while hospitalized crept up, they are still far from the peak of the delta wave.
Despite Omicron and Delta waves, Australia’s Covid-19 numbers are still among the lowest in the world, with around 341,500 cases and 2,210 deaths, thanks to strict social distancing rules and strict border restrictions. But most states have now started living with the virus following higher vaccination levels. ($1 = 1.3841 Australian Dollar)
Prime Minister Scott Morrison On Wednesday Australia needed “a gear change” to manage overburdened laboratories and get people out of isolation. He called an urgent meeting of the national cabinet on Thursday.
“We can’t take everyone out of vogue just because they’re in a particular place at a particular time,” Morrison said during a media briefing.
Morrison’s plan would prioritize medically urgent cases to cut down on long lines at testing sites and wait for lab results, which currently can take three to four days.
The proposed rules would rely more on rapid antigen tests, redefine close contacts of confirmed cases to those living in the same household, and require only PCR Testing for people with symptoms. Close contacts will have to isolate for seven days.
Several countries, including the United States and Britain, have shortened the recommended isolation time for asymptomatic cases.
The proposed new testing requirements come as Queensland promised to ease rules for interstate travelers with domestic arrivals, who required only a negative rapid antigen test to gain entry from 1 January instead of a PCR test.
Morrison said $375 million ($271 million) would be used to buy millions of additional rapid antigen testing kits.
Queensland’s so-called “tourism test” faced strong criticism from New South Wales, as holiday travelers crowded its testing centres, delaying results by several days.
‘its madness’
Even with rising infections, some testing centers in Sydney were closed after public holidays and those that were open had long walks and drive-in queues.
“This is madness,” 44-year-old Hayden Anderson, who is battling liver cancer, told Reuters. “Why are all testing centers closed?”
Anderson had a PCR test after he was caught with a friend just before Christmas tested positive. When he went for a follow-up test, the site was closed.
After seeing long lines at other testing centres, he agreed to a rapid antigen test at home, but with the rising number of cases he is concerned that he may struggle to get the PCR test as needed, before his next chemotherapy appointment on January 11. Can do.
“It’s like a tightrope right now,” he said.
Australia vulnerable to outbreak of highly contagious omicron The variant, with the country’s new daily infections of around 18,300, eclipses the previous pandemic’s tally of nearly 11,300 hit on Tuesday.
Cases in most states climbed to a one-day record with New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state and home of Sydney, reported a near doubling in infections to 11,201.
Despite the rapid spread of the Omicron version, Morrison has so far ruled out a lockdown, urging people to focus on the number of patients admitted to hospitals.
while hospitalized crept up, they are still far from the peak of the delta wave.
Despite Omicron and Delta waves, Australia’s Covid-19 numbers are still among the lowest in the world, with around 341,500 cases and 2,210 deaths, thanks to strict social distancing rules and strict border restrictions. But most states have now started living with the virus following higher vaccination levels. ($1 = 1.3841 Australian Dollar)
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