SA Health ’flexed up’ but days behind on Covid exposure sites
The Opposition says SA Health is struggling to keep up after it took days to list Jay Weatherill’s exposure sites despite his movements getting blanket media coverage.
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Confusion about who are contacts and delays with listing Covid-19 exposure sites has prompted the opposition to demand more resources for SA Health’s contact-tracing squad.
It has taken almost a week for some venues visited by infected people – including former premier Jay Weatherill – to be listed as exposure sites.
SA Health is now recruiting for a wide range of jobs in its contact-tracing team.
Despite borders opening a fortnight ago with the expectation Covid-19 would arrive, its adverts state there are “multiple vacancies” across areas including outbreak project support officers, senior administration assistants and public health project officers.
“You will be a vital part of our team as we roll out South Australia’s Covid-ready plan,” the ads say.
Opposition health spokesman Chris Picton said it was clear there were significant delays with releasing contact-tracing locations.
“When every hour counts, why are there days and days of contact-tracing delays?” he said.
“We can see this clearly with the case of Jay Weatherill because it was widely reported. There was a diagnosis on Wednesday, widely reported locations on Wednesday, but it took until Saturday night for those locations to be listed as exposure sites.
“Steven Marshall assured the public he had prepared the systems for the borders to open, so why are we seeing these problems?
“I have no doubt staff in SA Health are doing the best they can, but they clearly need more resources. Why weren’t resources put in place before the borders opened rather than now trying to hire more staff?”
Mr Marshall said SA Health resources had been “significantly flexed up” and he was satisfied with the work the contact-tracing teams were doing, noting “we should expect new cases every day”.
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