Covid Australia: Treat coronavirus like cold or flu, national cabinet decides

As a sign things are getting back to normal, national cabinet has decided healthy Aussies with mild symptoms soon won’t need to get tested for coronavirus.

Healthy people with mild symptoms will soon no longer need to get tested but should instead treat coronavirus like the flu or a cold, national cabinet has decided.

But the change, which will be phased in by state and territory authorities when they are ready, will still see testing centres offering PCRs stay open, to make sure vulnerable people at risk of severe disease or people who live in a household with someone at-risk, have access to tests along with those who would likely benefit from treatment.

In another signal that things are getting back to normal nation’s leaders have also agreed that the requirement that all close contacts quarantine will end as soon as possible.

At the moment close contacts of confirmed cases of coronavirus are required to undergo seven days of isolation.

There will be changes to Covid testing rules. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Gaye Gerard

This comes as experts have warned a new ‘stealth’ variant of Covid is expected to spread across Australia after a worrying infection spike in NSW.

The changes will be brought after advice from the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee.

national cabinet also agreed to the COVID-19 and influenza winter preparedness response and to extend the RAT concession support for three months.

Australian concession card holders have been eligible since January 24 for up to 10 free RATs over a three-month period, with a maximum of five tests in one month.

Australia had recorded some 34,873 new cases of Covid-19 in the 24 hours to Friday afternoon, with 1689 people hospitalised with the virus, according to the data tracker Covid Live.

The nation’s leaders will also work on a national plan to tackle Japanese encephalitis.