Australia also needs to rapidly ramp up the booster rollout. The issue there is not the number of available doses – there are about 20 million in warehouses or fridges around the country – but rather the lack of staff to run the vaccination clinics and provide the actual injections.
Surely providing booster shots to the vulnerable, the elderly and our frontline workers is a better use of public healthcare workers’ time than performing COVID-19 tests for people who don’t have symptoms but just want a (well deserved) weekend in Noosa.
Melburnians queue for testing on Russell Street in the CBD on Monday.Credit:Justin McManus.
It also goes against the advice of the country’s chief medical officers group, the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee.
Current AHPPC advice says PCR tests should only be used to help rapidly detect cases of coronavirus and people without symptoms should only be tested in certain circumstances.
“Large-scale, non-targeted, asymptomatic testing in Australia should be strongly discouraged,” the group said in a statement first published last year.
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“Non-targeted asymptomatic testing is neither epidemiologically sound nor a cost-effective approach to identify disease transmission.”
Currently, pre-departure testing is finding one positive case in every 1000 travellers, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said at a press conference on Wednesday, compared with between 17 and 20 in 1000 close contacts.
Before national cabinet’s meeting started, Ms Palaszczuk said the state would consider using rapid antigen tests instead of PCR tests from January 1, pending expert advice.
After the meeting, the Northern Territory announced it would ease requirements for PCR tests on days three and six after arrival, although it is keeping the pre-arrival test for now.
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After national cabinet met, the AHPPC agreed to examine whether rapid antigen tests or even no screening could be used in place of pre-departure PCR tests.
But the states don’t have to wait for the chief medical officers’ group to give them a green light.
It would be a great Christmas present to all if states and territories could break their habits of the past two years and stop behaving as individual fiefdoms. Then people could travel freely in their country and those who need to be tested could have peace of mind before the holidays.
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Gold standard testing should not be wasted on holidaymakers
Source: Philippines Alive
