WE CANNOT AFFORD TO FAIL THE TEST AT THIS STAGE

IT is not always easy doing the right thing, but it shouldn’t be this hard. Throughout the pandemic, the message to the public has been “please come forward and get tested”. Now, with an explosion of cases caused by the Omicron variant, the game has changed although health authorities and political leaders are still telling us how important it is to monitor the spread of the virus.

The move to rapid antigen tests and the scrapping of some of the requirements for travellers should have freed up testing capacity for people with symptoms and for serious close contacts under the tighter new definition.

But even these people who fit the criteria for a PCR test have been forced to take a number and hang around for hours on a hot day when they would rather be somewhere else or, if a positive case, spending their time safely isolating at home.

And these are the people who should be congratulated for wanting to do the right thing.

We live in an era where you can be sneered at and branded “sheeple” for checking in, wearing a mask, getting vaccinated or taking a Covid test.

The relatively young adults lining up outside Cairns Hospital on Monday were not fretful hypochondriacs. If they do have Covid it probably won’t kill them. But their decision to get tested and therefore isolate if the test proves positive is more about others. They can protect their community and particularly any elderly and vulnerable members of their own family.

The delays we face are not the fault of the hardworking test staff, many of whom should have been on a holiday if circumstances were different.

However, it is going to be essential that adequate testing be made available as Queensland adds thousands of new cases each day. The alternative is simply to turn people away and not know what we’re facing.