Minister defends govt over shortage of RATS
THE Morrison government has claimed Australia’s shortage of rapid antigen Covid-19 tests is a result of planning for Delta, rather than the Omicron variant of the virus.
Finance Minister Simon Birmingham said the government had “no idea” Omicron would necessitate a change away from PCR testing to rapid antigen tests (RATS), or that there would not be enough tests to meet demand.
His comments come as reports say the Omicron variant may take out 10 per cent of the workforce in coming weeks.
Senator Birmingham told ABC Radio that when governments were planning for Australia’s reopening, they had been responding to health advice about the Delta strain.
He said there was a “strong preference to keep using PCR testing as much as possible” for Delta, and the government had acquired RATS for use in “critical sectors” like aged care.
When asked whether the government had failed to adequately prepare, Senator Birmingham said Omicron was a “game changer” and RATS were now in demand “far in excess of what had been modelled”, not only in Australia but around the world.
RATS were approved for use in Australia last September, and the approval came into effect as of November 1.
The federal government urgently ordered $62m worth of RATS this week, a move that has come under fire by the Opposition.
Senator Birmingham said the government had not ignored health advice.
“If we could all have predicted what the Omicron variant would look like, of course we would have prepared for it in different ways,” he said.
“But ultimately, we modelled very carefully how we would reopen against the Delta variant – Omicron’s changed a lot of that …
“We’ve always known that there would be different variants that would (be) different to what we dealt with previously, but it’s not possible to predict precisely what those variants are going to mean in terms of the impact of them.”
Australia’s daily case numbers are now hovering around the 100,000 mark, but health experts anticipate the true number is much higher due to a shortage of RATS and long queues at PCR centres.