Scott Morrison makes major virus admission

The Prime Minister has made a major admission about Australia’s future with Covid due to a change in testing requirements.

Scott Morrison has conceded that Covid-19 numbers will be “underestimated” in Australia, as the country moves away from PCR testing and people are told to just deal with their infection at home.

The Prime Minister was asked how Australia would keep track of case numbers now that people who record positive results from rapid antigen tests – known as RATs – are no longer required to confirm it through a PCR, instead being told to just contact their GP.

Mr Morrison said case numbers were no longer the issue, admitting they would be underestimated under the new system announced on Wednesday after a national cabinet meeting.

“Case numbers will be underestimated in Australia because we know that people are self-managing in many instances,” he told reporters at Parliament House on Thursday.

“They have not gone for a PCR test, they’ve been aware they have Covid and they stayed home and isolated.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison says states will work out how to record positive RATs. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Mr Morrison said states and territories were working on their own methods to record infection numbers from RATs so they could estimate demand on the healthcare system.

All except Western Australia have ditched the PCR confirmation requirement.

“They can work that out, whether they want to do it through QR codes or other systems, those are all the things that are being considered,” he said.

“We want to ensure that we can get as much information as we can because that does support the states and territories to plan for hospitals.

“And that is what they are working on now to ensure that they can have effective recording mechanisms as we move more from PCR tests to RATs to enable them to inform their decisions and to assist us with ours.”

Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley revealed that a new “probably” description of a positive case recorded from a RAT would be created to monitor numbers.

“I will be signing pandemic orders that recognise people with a rapid antigen test as a probably case as a new description,” he said.

“Essentially, this new category, based on the rapid antigen test, will be the same in the system as if you were diagnosed through the PCR system.

“The goal is to make sure that we have less times at testing centres and that as a result people focus more quickly on the thing that is most important – getting through that Covid-infected period and getting better with support as quickly as possible.”

Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley says a new ‘probably’ positive classification would be created from RATs in his state. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Sarah Matray

Mr Morrison maintained his position that the responsibility for securing RATs lay with the states and admitted the supply issues had been a “challenge”.

“We will, as I said yesterday, face some shortages for a few more weeks yet, both in the private supply as well as the government supply,” he said.

It was announced on Wednesday that the commonwealth would provide 10 million RATs to the states to assist with testing capacity.

He said 200 million RATs would arrive in Australia over this month and next.

“So those supplies will come and this has been a challenge but yesterday we’ve got around the table and we’ve sorted it out,” he said.

Mr Morrison also revealed it had been a record day for booster shots on Wednesday, with 222,565 jabs provided to people.

He said that amount was also more than were given in a single day for first doses or second doses in Australia.

Originally published as Scott Morrison makes major virus admission