Cabinet to meet as Covid cases surge
PRIME Minister Scott Morrison has brought forward a meeting of national cabinet as people scramble for tests, face hours in queues, and Covid cases surge to record daily highs in four states.
National cabinet will convene on Thursday to discuss a range of issues relating to the “Omicron effect” and the stress a surging virus caseload has placed on the nation’s testing and health regimes.
This includes potential changes to the definition of what constitutes a close contact and the appropriate triggers for isolating health and hospitality staff – as well as updated guidelines around
when people should take a test.
Mr Morrison said the definition of a close contact, as per the advice of the chief health officer, could change to someone who is a household contact of a confirmed case only – or someone who has spent more than four hours with someone in an aged care setting.
He said this was to help free up people from unnecessary isolation requirements.
“If I went down to a restaurant down the road and I happened to pop in and get some take away and there was a case there, I would not be a close contact,” Mr Morrison said. “I would not then have to isolate.”
Mr Morrison also said rapid antigen testing would be the way forward, rather than the more stringent PCR tests, as cases surged. He was quick to add that the supply of at-home rapid antigen tests – or lack of supply in certain jurisdictions – was not a Commonwealth responsibility.
Limited supply of the quicker but less accurate tests has been a key frustration for states as they moved away from PCR to ease the burden on health systems, and hopefully alleviate hours-long lines for testing.
“The testing regimes are run by the state and territory governments,” Mr Morrison said on Wednesday when asked about supply constraints.
“The Commonwealth has responsibilities for the provision of the vaccines and supporting the testing arrangements that sit in residential aged care facilities. We’re meeting our responsibilities.”
He did however say that proposed changes to close contact rules would help ease demand for the tests.
“These RAT tests are a precious commodity,” he said.
“But we need to make sure they‘re getting to people who need them.”
The announcement of Thursday’s meeting came as Queensland, NSW, South Australia and Victoria all smashed their daily Covid case numbers, with the national
caseload approaching 20,000 ahead of New Year’s Eve celebrations.
While Mr Morrison admitted the Omicron phase of the pandemic had sent infections soaring, he noted the number of people presenting to hospitals had not followed suit.
He said that with Omicron, the issue was not the number of cases but how many of them were serious and how that affected the hospital system.
Mr Morrison has been roasted by opponents for an apparent failure to secure a larger supply of rapid antigen tests, particularly as more states move away from stringent PCR testing to free up their health systems.