Fewer Australians to have Covid tests as national cabinet agrees to new
Fewer Australians will be told to get tested for Covid, with most states backing a much narrower definition of a close contact, as a record 21,000 new daily cases were reported nationwide.
The prime minister, Scott Morrison, cited “some very practical problems” caused by the more infectious Omicron variant – including the huge strain on the PCR testing scheme that had been at the centre of Australia’s response for two years.
Speaking after a snap national cabinet meeting on Thursday, Morrison called for a “reset” because it was unfeasible to “have hundreds of thousands of Australians or more taken out of circulation based on rules that were set for the Delta variant”.
The changes come on the same day the OzSage group of scientists and economists warned that a “let it rip” and “defeatist” approach to Covid would disrupt the health system and be felt most by vulnerable groups.
Morrison insisted he took “responsibility for the decisions we have taken” and flatly rejected OzSage’s advice that “a fatalistic approach will be fatal for some people”. The prime minister said: “I accept the chief medical officer’s advice.”
Under the new definition – expected to be adopted by all states and territories except Western Australia at this stage – a close contact is someone who lives with or has been in a “household-like” situation with a confirmed Covid-19 case for at least four hours.
Confirmed Covid-19 cases and close contacts will have to stay at home for seven days, with a rapid antigen test on day six in order to clear the way for them to return to the community.
“If you are anything other than a close contact, and you are not symptomatic, you don’t need to go and get a test,” Morrison said.
“Now, I know this is a bit different to what you have been hearing over the last couple of years. That is the gear change. That is the reset. That is what we need people to really understand.”
Morrison said the change would “ensure that our public health systems work as effectively to keep as many people are safe as possible”.
But the Australian Medical Association blasted the new definition, saying the move “appears to put politics over health” and would “accelerate the outbreak of Omicron”.
The AMA president, Dr Omar Khorshid, said authorities would “miss so many more cases with this new, more narrow definition of a close contact”.
“It seems national cabinet is prepared to bet that a massive Omicron outbreak won’t cause large numbers of hospitalisations,” Khorshid said.
The new rules are expected to come into effect at midnight on Thursday night in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, the ACT and South Australia – although SA will still maintain a 10-day isolation rule.
Tasmania is set to adopt the new rules on 1 January, and the Northern Territory is due to announce its plans in the coming days.
But the Western Australian premier, Mark McGowan, said his state was in a “very different” position from the states “with a high case load”, and still hoped to “eliminate” the current outbreak. WA reported just one new Covid case on Thursday.
McGowan said he had “agreed in principle”…
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