Changes to rules on testing and quarantine requirements spark anger and confusion

Under new rules, close contacts living with a Covid positive person may have to quarantine for 14 days – four more than the person who has Covid.

New quarantine and testing rules issued on Wednesday mean some close household contacts of people with Covid-19 will have to isolate for longer than the person with the disease.

The changes are designed to prevent whole families having to quarantine for weeks on end as Covid spreads through households.

But they caused widespread confusion and an online backlash.

Under the new system, household contacts must determine whether they can “appropriately” isolate themselves from the person they live with who has Covid.

That means staying in separate rooms and avoiding the same routes to common areas like kitchens and bathrooms.

Those who can meet this criteria are subject to existing rules and restrictions.

Those who can’t are not required to get a PCR test at any stage unless they develop symptoms, but instead quarantine for 14 days – four days longer than people who test positive for Covid.

The expectation is that within the 14-day period, other household members will likely contract and become symptomatic with Covid, triggering a requirement to get a PCR test.

Household contacts who are in quarantine with a Covid positive case will not have to restart their quarantine period if another household member tests positive within the 14-day period.

Chief public health officer Nicola Spurrier said: “Rather than have a snowball effect within families, meaning extended quarantine time, SA Health has updated the requirements.

“Because Omicron is highly transmissible and there is now evidence that people get infected quicker, most people who cannot separate from the case will get infected in the first couple of days. Making 14 days of quarantine allows the 10 days isolation period to be covered for all potentially infected family members.”

The updated rules sparked widespread criticism and confusion online.

“So people who don’t test positive need to isolate for longer than positive cases … you’re cooked if you think people are going to follow that,” a Facebook user said.

Questions have also been raised at the discrepancy in testing requirements for people who can quarantine at home “appropriately” compared with those who can’t.

New rules regarding quarantine and testing requirements spark outrage online. Picture: Facebook

In a press conference on Wednesday, Premier Steven Marshall explained the change would help families with a Covid-positive member.

Families are “very likely to have got the disease if they can’t isolate separately,” he said.

“This is fixing a problem that was identified some time ago when one family had I think up to 40 days that they had to isolate because one would get it and the next one would get it and so on,” Mr Marshall said.

Deputy Labor leader Susan Close said it was “just the latest example of Covid chaos and confusion under Steven Marshall”, but Mr Marshall said his government was “providing further clarity as we’re working through different stages of the disease”.