Rapid Covid testing at border key to stopping spread from truckies

Two doctors have called for rapid Covid-19 tests at the Queensland-New South Wales border to ease the threat from interstate truck drivers.

A leading public health expert and a prominent Gold Coast doctor are calling for rapid Covid testing at the border to stop a stream of virus-carrying truckies and further free up travel between Queensland and NSW.

Murwillumbah-based epidemiologist Dr Henning Liljeqvist and Coast doctor Bill Anseline, whose Hemisphere Management Group devises Covid-safe plans for film, TV, entertainment sports and other industries, are pushing for a rapid antigen test trial on the border.

It comes after an eighth interstate truck driver tested positive for Covid after entering Queensland, sparking another contact tracing emergency.

The introduction of rapid antigen tests, which take about 15 minutes compared to hours or even days for ‘gold-standard’ PCR tests and cost only about $30, is gathering pace in Australia after being used extensively overseas.

Eight interstate truck drivers have tested positive to Covid-19 after entering Queensland. Picture: NIGEL HALLETT

Western Australia has introduced rapid testing on the South Australian border for “extreme risk” truckies while NSW Health is also trialling the technology.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt this week said he hoped the rapid tests would soon be approved for home use by the Therapeutic Drugs Administration.

Dr Anseline, who is working with state governments and major companies to set up rapid antigen testing, said Covid-carrying truckies posed a significant threat to Queensland.

He said rapid testing at the border could immediately identify virus-positive drivers before they entered the state.

The tests could also detect Covid in vaccinated people and stop them from becoming “phantom spreaders” of the virus to the millions of unvaccinated.

“Vaccination is an important tool in a suite of responses that we will need to cope with the evolving epidemic, but we in Australia are treating it as if it is the only tool,” he said.

Gold Coast doctor Bill Anseline is pushing for rapid antigen testing on the border.

“Rapid antigen testing offers us another powerful tool for the mix. It does not replace the more accurate but time-consuming and expensive PCR tests, but it does allow agile decision making in ways that the delayed-result PCR testing does not.”

Dr Liljeqvist, who has helped Opera Australia and major TV productions carry out rapid Covid tests on cast and crew to keep them operating through the pandemic, said wider use of rapid tests would be another line of defence and ‘facilitate a greater reopening of society’.

“We know that vaccinated people can still catch the virus and spread it … so it’s important we test vaccinated people as well,” he said.

“Until we get a much higher vaccination rate, we still need to test everybody. Rapid antigen testing does not compete with PCR testing, it complements it. You also end up testing a lot of people that otherwise would not be tested.”

Dr Liljeqvist said truckies could be rapid-tested by their employers before they drove, with the results sent to border health officials to avoid congestion at the checkpoints.