Government push to scrap testing for interstate travellers

THE state and federal governments have joined forces to lobby Queensland, South Australia and Tasmania to abandon strict testing requirements for travellers that are causing massive queues at Victorian clinics.

Speaking after Wednesday’s national cabinet meeting, Scott Morrison said there was strong health advice that Australians crossing state borders did not need to be tested.

About a quarter of people lining up for tests in Victoria – in some cases for up to five hours – are doing so to meet interstate entry requirements.

But the Prime Minister said only about one in every 1000 travellers were testing positive to Covid, compared with 20 out of every 1000 close contacts.

The national medical expert panel has now been tasked with delivering advice to the states on appropriate testing rules, with Mr Morrison saying the existing settings had caused “terrible queues and long waits”.

“This is putting unnecessary pressure on the testing system,” he said.

“That needs to get sorted and I’d like to see that get sorted as soon as possible.”

Victorian Covid commander Jeroen Weimar said it was “not a highly productive way to use a PCR testing system”, especially as it meant potentially infectious people were waiting in queues and mixing with asymptomatic people getting tested for “bureaucratic reasons”.

“We hope to move to a more sensible arrangement in the very near future,” he said.

Mr Morrison said “the very least (the states) could do” was accept rapid antigen test results to reserve PCR testing capacity for Covid contacts and people with symptoms.

The federal government is also considering expanding free access to rapid tests, which are sent out for free to households in other countries including the UK and the US.

Mr Morrison said there were “options we’ll be considering in this space”, but he flagged the commonwealth needed to prioritise its resources for measures that had the greatest impact.

The national cabinet also considered advice from the medical expert panel to enforce the use of masks in indoor settings.

The Victorian government is now deciding whether it will mandate masks and where, with changes likely to cover hospitality and major events.

The Prime Minister said masks were “highly recommended” in public indoor spaces.

“Whether it’s mandated or not, that’s what we should be doing,” he said.

Federal chief medical officer Professor Paul Kelly agreed, as he said Australians needed to “learn to live” with the new Omicron variant.

Only one person is currently in hospital because of Omicron on our shores. Professor Kelly said authorities were closely considering its potential impact on the health system, as case numbers overseas doubled every two to three days.

Mr Weimar warned Omicron was “a very significant threat to our state and healthcare system”.

Mr Morrison said health workers were “in a strong position but of course they’ll be tested”.

“We are well prepared for Omicron but we are not taking it anything other than very seriously,” he said.

“Australia is arguably better positioned to deal with this than almost any other country in the world.”