Coronavirus testing Melbourne: People told not to wait to get tested if showing symptoms
Victorians showing symptoms of coronavirus are delaying getting tested because they don’t want to ruin their weekend or think they’re too healthy to catch it — and it’s landing some in ICU.
Coronavirus
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Victorians who fear they’ve got coronavirus are waiting so long to get tested some are going straight from hospital emergency departments to intensive care.
In some instances people delayed getting tested on a Friday because they didn’t want to ruin their weekend by having to isolate.
Others felt embarrassed, wrongly believed they were too healthy or young to become infected or didn’t want to miss work.
Austin Health nurse Kym Wade, unit manager of the hospital’s COVID screening services, told the Herald Sun people showing symptoms had waited up to four days to get tested.
The delay was crucial because coronavirus often improved or worsened at the five day mark.
Symptoms also typically didn’t present until two days after infection.
“They can be going along for a couple of days quite well and then four or five days down the track they can either go down the pathway of getting better or getting worse,’’ Ms Wade said.
“If we don’t know that they’re positive there’s no one monitoring these people so therefore they’re delaying their treatment.
“If you’ve got people in the community who haven’t been tested and are sick and then they get to the point of the virus where they become unwell, they’re hitting the emergency department and potentially going straight to intensive care or going straight to a ward.
“If we’d caught them earlier then we can monitor them and make sure they’re getting the correct treatment.”
People showing symptoms who delayed getting a test — which was now quicker and less invasive — also risked spreading the virus.
“We find presentations into the clinic decrease on a Friday which may be due to the fact people don’t want to be isolated over the weekend,’’ Ms Wade said.
“Obviously we don’t have many luxuries at the moment and people could be concerned it will stop them being able to go for a walk or shopping.
“People are also worried about missing work. It has a lot to do with financial implications.
“There is also a component of embarrassment and they think it won’t happen to them. Ignorance is bliss. But unfortunately this virus doesn’t differentiate.
“We need the public to come and get tested — we really do so it gives us an accurate representation of how much of the virus is out there.”
Department of Health and Human Services figures show Victoria’s daily total of coronavirus tests, which usually sits at around 15,000, has dropped to as low as 10,000 in recent days.
Deakin University Prof Catherine Bennett said keeping the number up was vital so health authorities had greater confidence to make decisions, including whether to relax restrictions.
It was estimated testing was capturing about half of all corona cases in the community.
The proportion of positive tests had fallen from about 3.6 per cent at the pandemic’s peak to less than 1 per cent.
“Testing is critical so we can see where the virus is, how much is still out there and who is at risk,’’ Prof Bennett said.
“We definitely need to keep this up.
“If we get to the point where we really shut down these last cases then it’s even more important. It might seem futile because the positive rate might be so low but that’s what you want. That is going to be the way we monitor this going ahead.
“If we’re testing everyone with symptoms and we’re not finding any COVID — that’s the dream. That means the government is confident to relax restrictions further.”
Random testing and analysing wastewater were further ways to assess the prevalence of the virus, Prof Bennett said.
Workers who don’t have sick leave or can’t earn an income while they isolate and await a coronavirus test can get a government $450 payment.
There is a $1500 payment if they test positive.
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