Victoria’s COVID-19 response commander Jeroen Weimar on Wednesday.Credit:Luis Enrique Ascui
This week’s delays led test provider EAST, which operates five clinics in Melbourne’s far east, to warn that the results would take up to three days to process. Mr Weimar said 90 percent of the test results were returned the next day.
Victoria recorded 1,503 new COVID-19 infections and six deaths from the disease on Wednesday. The total number of Omicron cases in the state reached 61 and a total of 394 people were hospitalized with COVID-19.
The line at St. Vincent’s on Wednesday around 7am.
Mr Weimar said he hoped fewer people would clog the state’s testing system for “bureaucratic reasons” after processing a record 9,2,262 tests on Tuesday.
“Using a PCR test system is not very productive and it obviously adds to the pressure, so the additional queues and waiting times we are currently seeing are a by-product of it. We hope to be able to move on to a more sensible arrangement in the future, ”said Weimar.
“Just clogging the system with people who are particularly asymptomatic, especially when they haven’t been in close contact, when they just need testing for some other bureaucratic reason – that’s the kind of thing I think we’d like to have. ” to reduce.”
Well-known epidemiologist Tony Blakely of the University of Melbourne said a rapid antigen test in the 24 hours before the trip would be more useful than a PCR test three days before.
“PCR is more accurate at any point in time … But when you have PCR [up to] Three days before crossing the border, a rapid antigen test before crossing the border will most likely be more useful in tracking down infected people, so it all seems a bit silly, ”said Professor Blakeley.
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He said a fast antigen was “more than enough, it’s probably as good if not better”, especially for states like Queensland and South Australia, which had accepted some levels of COVID-19 transmission, was inevitable.
Testing asymptomatic people who don’t have close contacts is a poor use of resources, he said.
“It is likely to kill the whole system as it is harmful to everyone. It actually delays the return of the test results for the people who are symptomatic or for whom we want to know the test result faster, ”said Professor Blakely.
People queued at the Aughtie Walk transit point in Albert Park from 4 a.m., where operators were forced to temporarily suspend testing just after 6 a.m. for the third day in a row.
Mr Weimar also urged the Victorians to proactively conduct rapid antigen tests if, for example, they were asymptomatic before attending events, but that it was possible to test a few thousand more people a day before they were overwhelmed.
“The reason we expose new people who come to test stations [is] We don’t want people to sit in queues for four or five hours where we can possibly avoid that, ”said Weimar.
“We would much rather move people to other test stations or encourage them to come back later that day.”
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Opposition health spokeswoman Georgie Crozier said other governments should consider allowing travelers to use rapid antigen testing as a screening tool to ease the burden on PCR testing sites.
“[Lengthy queues at testing sites] is a lack of planning by the Andrews government in the run-up to Christmas as we are reopening and people want to spend time with family and friends to get tested and they just can’t, “said Ms. Crozier.
Victoria has been ramping up its testing capacity since May, with test provider Cohealth running a record number of tests Tuesday after tripling its workforce. Pop-up test sites also opened this week on Overton Road in Frankston, at the Chisholm TAFE Dandenong and Berwick locations and at Melbourne City Hall.
With Cassandra Morgan, Rachel Clun and Sean Parnell
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