O’Sullivan seeks ‘cheaper, faster’ coronavirus tests
Work and Income fields thousands of inquiries Chaser ready for Kiwi quiz
Thousands of inquiries from beneficiaries and wage subsidy seekers are stretching Work and Income’s resources. The Ministry of Social Development (MSD) said its phone networks were overloaded and it was experiencing ‘‘very high demand’’ as the coronavirus pandemic affects the economy. MSD’s Jason Dwen said its call centres responded to more than 75,000 calls over three days last week. It also dealt with 56,000 other tasks, including ‘‘applications for hardship assistance, student allowances and changes in circumstances’’. As of Friday, MSD had paid out $2.7 billion for 428,768 workers under the Covid-19 wage and leave subsidy. George van Ooyen, of MSD, said it would recruit more staff.
A Kiwi pub quiz company is injecting some competitive spirit into lockdown by offering its quizzes online for free. And they’ve even managed to get The Chase TV star Shaun Wallace on board. Believe It Or Not Quiz Nights is posting a traditional quiz and a multimedia quiz to its Facebook page every week, to keep trivia buffs entertained while their regular venues are out of action. Believe It Or Not founder Brendan Lochead said it was ‘‘about giving back’’. He also said as long as all went to plan technology wise, they had lined up Wallace to join a livestreamed pub quiz next Wednesday.The TV quiz show fan favourite, known as ‘‘The Dark Destroyer’’, is in lockdown in his London apartment and had jumped at the chance to be involved.
Former New Zealander of the Year Dr Lance O’Sullivan is speaking to overseas companies about bringing cheaper, faster but ‘‘less accurate’’ coronavirus tests to New Zealand.
But leading microbiologists are worried about the implications of giving patients inaccurate results.
On Tuesday, O’Sullivan highlighted the need for a cheaper, quicker alternative to the current nasopharyngeal test which he estimated cost $50-$100 each to administer. The call was made hours before the Government announced it planned to ramp up virus testing, with the Ministry of Health indicating it was looking at alternatives to the throat and mouth swab method currently used.
The Kaita¯ ia GP raised the possibility of using finger-prick tests because ‘‘some of them cost as little as $6’’ and the results were returned ‘‘in 15 minutes’’ instead of the current tests, which are meant to take two days but can take longer.
O’Sullivan said finger-prick test accuracy was 30-70 per cent, while the current test was 75 per cent to ‘‘close to 100 per cent accurate’’. He said he was concerned about a lack of testing because of a ‘‘scarcity of resources’’ and he was in talks to bring cheaper tests to the Far North, where nine cases have been confirmed so far. ‘‘A 30 per cent chance of getting a result is better than a zero per cent result which is what we have got at the moment.’’ O’Sullivan could retest patients who delivered negative coronavirus results on subsequent days, saying the ‘‘chances of getting two negatives is getting increasingly low ... for the sake of $18 in three days, it is almost the same as what we are doing at the moment.’’ The region has a high Ma¯ ori population, shown in modelling to be disproportionately affected if efforts to stamp out Covid-19 fail.
Auckland DHB microbiologist Dr Sally Roberts said the reliability of the alternative tests in a New Zealand setting was unproven. ‘‘[O’Sullivan] should be well aware of this issue. Imagine the chaos if we said someone was negative – false negative – and the person was actually positive and [exposed] more individuals to the virus.’’
The Ministry of Health said the current test was considered the ‘‘gold standard’’.
However, director-general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield confirmed on Tuesday the agency was looking at alternatives.