CORONAVIRUS — OMICRON MODELLING
55. Hon WILSON TUCKER to the Leader of the House
representing the Minister for Health:
On Tuesday 15 February during
question time the minister advised the Parliament that the government would
release its Omicron modelling when it was complete.
(1) Will the minister please table
the current modelling, whether incomplete or in draft form?
(2) If no to (1),
will the minister fulfil her obligations under section 82 of the Financial
Management Act?
(3) When will the modelling be
complete?
(4) Does this incomplete modelling
influence COVID policy decisions?
(5) In the
absence of complete COVID modelling, what factors get considered when making
COVID policy decisions and how are these factors weighted?
(6) Omicron
modelling developed by other jurisdictions and independent institutions is
already publicly available. Why is Western Australia lagging behind in this
regard?
Hon SUE
ELLERY replied:
I thank the honourable member for
some notice of the question.
(1)–(6) Work
on modelling is ongoing and will be released publicly once it is complete. Part
of the Department of Health's ongoing work consists of receiving
up-to-date data and analysing the ongoing spread of the Omicron variant
throughout other jurisdictions, including the eastern states. Government decisions
are made upon the latest health advice. This
includes the extraordinary speed at which Omicron spreads, surging
hospitalisation rates.