Man forced into medi-hotel after receiving negative and positive Covid test 15 minutes apart

A baffled and frustrated Adelaide man “imprisoned” in a medi-hotel has revealed a series of contradictory SA Health messages about his test results – and quarantine stay.

An Adelaide man forced into a medi-hotel after testing positive to Covid is questioning the entire SA Health testing system, after he received contradicting test results within a 15-minute time frame.

Matthew Zubrinich has been in Tom’s Court medi-hotel since he received a positive test result on Thursday.

He returned home from Melbourne on Sunday, November 29.

After demanding another Covid test for three days in the hotel, Mr Zubrinich finally had success on Monday, but received two different messages from SA Health within 15 minutes on Tuesday morning.

“I got a negative saliva test, and then a positive PCR test, how does that work?”

Matthew Zubrinich is double vaccinated but “imprisoned” at Tom’s Court Hotel. Picture: Kelly Barnes

Mr Zubrinich, 34, owns a plumbing business and said he has had a total four tests in about a week, and two have been negative and two have been positive.

“The only reason I had these tests (at the medi-hotel) was because I absolutely protested to get them, and now I’ve got a negative and a positive, how do we trust these tests?” he said.

“This is just getting ridiculous.”

Adding to his confusion, he received a call from SA Health about 1pm Tuesday, asking what his email address was to send an end-of-quarantine confirmation.

“I said, ‘is this a joke, because I’m in a medi-hotel supposedly with Covid’,” Mr Zubrinich said.

“The lady didn’t even know I was in here and told me my quarantine period ended last night. I have no idea what quarantine arrangement they were even talking about. What is going on with these people?”

An SA Health spokeswoman said it had been communicating with Mr Zubrinich regularly to provide support and advice.

She said several oral and nasal swab tests (PCR tests) confirmed he was Covid-positive, despite the saliva test returning a negative result.

According to SA Health, PCR testing is the most accurate way to test for Covid and is the gold-standard method in SA. Saliva tests are far less accurate and are used as a screening test.

“The decision to place people into a quarantine facility is based on the public health risk and whether the person has an appropriate place to isolate at home in order to reduce the spread of Covid-19,” the spokeswoman said.

“Covid-positive people who complete home quarantine need to be completely isolated from their family at all times.”

The father-of-two told The Advertiser on Monday the state needed to rethink how it handled Covid positive cases, especially after choosing to open borders.

He is double vaccinated, and said it was not realistic to put every positive case in a medi-hotel.

“I’ve sort of come to terms with probably having to be here for 14 days so it’s not even about that, it’s just, I can’t believe the process,” he said.

An SA Health spokeswoman said they could not confirm an individual’s test result due to privacy reasons.

They have been contacted for further comment about whether a person who produces a false negative would have to undertake a full 14 days in a medi-hotel.

Mr Zubrinich’s stay at Tom’s Court is funded by the taxpayer.