CORONAVIRUS —
GOVERNMENT RESPONSE
820. Ms S.E. WINTON to the Minister for Health:
I refer to the McGowan Labor
government's efforts to keep Western Australia safe and strong. Can the
minister outline to the house what measures this government is taking to ensure
that Western Australia continues to be well prepared to respond to any outbreaks
of COVID-19?
Mr R.H.
COOK replied:
I thank the member for the question.
Before I answer the question, when the Premier gave his answer on moving from hard borders to controlled borders, he wished
to table the Chief Health Officer's advice. I now do so on his behalf.
[See paper 3936.]
Mr
R.H. COOK: The McGowan government
is committed to keeping Western Australians safe so that we can keep our economy strong. Regardless of the stage of the
process, it has always been the same game around testing, tracing,
isolating, and making sure that we have all these systems in place to ensure
that Western Australians are kept safe. Our hard border policy has allowed us
time to prepare for any future outbreaks of the virus in Western Australia.
I want to talk about a few of the
initiatives that we have undertaken recently, which may be of interest to
members of Parliament. The preparations include the customisation of the
Emergency WA platform for COVID-19 alerts; innovation funding of $500 000 to
pilot new COVID-screening technology; and a wastewater testing program for
COVID-19. Last weekend, the Minister for Emergency Services and I announced an
adaptation of the Department of Fire and Emergency Services' Emergency
WA website platform for future community COVID-19 alerts and warnings. The
platform has utilised Emergency WA's map-based display, which provides
vital information to help people impacted in areas to make informed decisions
about their safety. We are obviously used to seeing it used during cyclones,
bushfires and other disasters. The platform can now be used to provide
geographically targeted information for communities affected by a localised
outbreak of COVID-19. There exists a high level of awareness of it in the
community, so we think that this will be an important tool for making sure that
we can keep people informed. As part of the customisation, a human pandemic
icon has been created to identify alerts and warnings specific to COVID-19. If
required, the Department of Health has also investigated the use of, and access
to, the national emergency alert telephone warning system, which delivers
emergency messages to fixed phone lines and mobile phones in a defined area. As
many members would know, this is used by DFES when there is a direct and
imminent threat to lives and properties.
Recently, I was very pleased to
announce some innovation funding for a local start-up company's bid to
develop a platform that supports rapid,
low-cost and large-scale COVID-19 screening. This company has been given a boost
thanks to the new $500 000 innovation funding by the McGowan government. The WA
start-up Avicena Systems is behind the venture that uses saliva samples and
promises to deliver a more efficient alternative to the current COVID screening
system. The platform is designed to provide portable, scalable screening with
rapid throughput that will enable the
processing of up to 5 000 samples an hour. If we can get this technology
landed, it will be a game changer to
make sure that we can screen significant levels of people, particularly those
coming through airports and other areas that involve travelling members
of the public. An evaluation program to expand the polymerase chain reaction
testing to the state's sewerage network was announced in September and
has been underway since. The first samples to be tested were collected by the
Water Corporation from metropolitan wastewater treatment plants in April this
year. PathWest has validated the testing methods and has begun testing the
stored samples. All stored samples will be tested by the end of this week. The
pilot program will also consist of two distinct projects, the first of which will be to test historical samples
collected by the Water Corporation. The second project will test prospective
samples from quarantine hotels in which the sampling can be matched to the
times when we know that COVID cases are staying at the hotels. This will take
place from 9 November. This is important work that will help us to understand,
as our wastewater testing regime goes forward, what it means for the community
and how we can continue to be informed by this wide range of testing that goes
on in conjunction with the symptomatic testing of around 15 000 people a week.
This is fantastic work by the Department of Health to make sure that we
continue to be vigilant, continue to be safe and can keep Western Australians
safe into the future.