CORONAVIRUS
— TESTING RATES
10. Dr D.J. HONEY to the Minister for Health:
I refer to Western Australia's low testing rates and
reports from esteemed epidemiologists that Omicron cases may be much higher
than reported.
(1) Does the
minister agree that the government should be using every tool available to
ensure that all possible contacts get tested?
(2) What advice, if any, has the minister received on
publishing or not publishing exposure sites?
(3) How can Western Australians get tested if they do not
know where the exposure sites are?
Ms A. SANDERSON replied:
(1)–(3)
The testing rates are lower than we would like. We have said every day,
certainly since we had the original Delta outbreak just before Christmas, that
we want more and more people to get tested all the time. The reality is that our testing has been steadily at
around 4 000 and 5 000 tests a day, and our polymerase chain reaction
clinics have the capacity to test around 30 000 people a day. Our consistent
message to people has been to go out and get tested. The Leader of the Liberal
Party will recall that we recently shifted to the high case load setting, which
essentially changed the definition of ''close contacts'' and took
away the requirement for, or even existence of, casual contacts in that
framework. Therefore, it is a natural effect that we have seen fewer exposure
sites because there are fewer close contacts and no casual contacts. The public
health team makes these decisions based on its own expertise and every
individual circumstance. There are many reasons why certain sites do not go up.
I am not going to second-guess public health officials
or the Chief Health Officer, who has made sensible decisions and provided
steady and solid advice throughout the last two years that has saved Western
Australian lives.
All the measures that we have put
in place have slowed down the rate of infection. The high rates of vaccination,
the eased transition of the border settings, with 30 000 people coming through,
and a shorter isolation period—all
those things—are helping to slow down the transmission. Although there are
probably a number of unknown cases out there, once they become
symptomatic, they will soon become known to us and those people will be
supported. But the reality is that we are experiencing lower numbers because of
the strong management of this virus.