Australian Cabinet has changed the definition of close contact, and testing requirements. The leaders agreed on a uniform definition, implementing new rules. These new rules are regarding isolation and how people get tested. However, the Australian Medical Association raised concerns in a series of posts on social media. They believe these changes will make the situation worse rather than help to overcome the number of raising cases.
Close contact definition
According to Scott Morrison, Omicron is a game-changer and required a reset. He said in a statement, ‘’Omicron requires us to undertake a change of how we are managing the pandemic, and we need to reset how we think about the pandemic, and how we manage ourselves and the things we need to do as a government. ‘’ As the number of cases rises, the queues for testing also upsurges. Therefore, to minimize the number of people going for PCR testing, close contact and testing requirements have been redefined.
Morrison said, ‘’ except in exceptional circumstances, close contact is a household contact or ‘household-like’ of a confirmed case only. Household contact is someone who lives with a case or has spent more than four hours with them in a house, accommodation, or care facility setting.’’
Therefore, ‘’if you are only in close contact and effectively living with someone or shared accommodation setting for more than four hours with a person having Covid- not someone who is in contact with someone who has had Covid,’’ Morrison added. Hence, anyone meeting the above definition has to isolate themselves and also go for testing. However, the government also changed the testing criteria.
PCR Testing
If anyone has symptoms, they should get a PCR test. According to the new rule, anyone with a confirmed case must isolate themselves for seven days. It is said in a statement that if confirmed cases remain symptomatic, they should continue to remain in isolation. And continue to seek PCR testing. Anyone who has been living with and in close contact with someone but not showing any symptoms must test with rapid antigen testing. If their test is positive, they must go for PCR testing. This rule is applicable everywhere, except in South Australia, where while adopting the definition, will still require ten days of the isolation period.
If you don’t fulfill these definitions, you will not be able to get a PCR test. Morrison said, ‘’ you should go home. Go to the beach, go and do what you want to do.’’ Meanwhile, Dr.Omar Khorshid, president of the Australian Medical Association said, ‘’ Redefining close contacts will simply accelerate the outbreak,’’ he said. ‘’ I don’t think you could call the NSW experiment a success yet.’’