Scott Morrison urges states to find ‘commonality’ over testing requirements

Scott Morrison has made a big call to Covid testing as Australia struggles to keep up with demand.

The Prime Minister says medical experts are considering advising states to scrap PCR requirements as testing sites around the country are inundated with demand.

Following days of extensive queues at testing sites in Victoria, NSW and the ACT for travellers wanting to enter Queensland, Tasmania and South Australia, Scott Morrison said a change could be imminent.

He said the medical expert panel would go away and formulate advice as soon as possible as to whether negative PCR tests are necessary for domestic travel, as case numbers balloon across the country.

“Some states are still of the view that they are requiring that, and we are seeking further medical advice on why that should be withdrawn,” Mr Morrison said.

“About one in 1000 people being tested for travelling are testing positive. For those who are close contacts, it’s 17-20, and that gives you an idea of where resources are best applied.

“But as always, that draws on the best medical advice. those states requiring test are seeking more advice.”

He said states could be advised to accept rapid antigen tests, or scrap the requirement for a negative test all together.

Around the country, there are massive queues for PCR tests amid requirements from some states as a condition of entry, while case numbers boom. NCA NewsWire / Naomi Jellicoe

Chief medical officer professor Paul Kelly said there were “three things” that would guard against Omicron and the increasing cases seen in recent days.

“The first is vaccine efficacy is less in Omicron, the third dose helps, but it’s not as protective as it was against Delta,” he said.

“The second is public health/social measures – I’ll be wearing a mask wherever I go indoors from now on, and there’s a suite of things Premiers can look at.

“The third is test-trace-isolate-quarantine. In the ACT, in NSW, in Victoria, it is very difficult to get a test at the moment. If you’re getting a test you’re waiting for many hours and might not get a result for three days.

“This reliance on testing for travel is interfering with one of the few things we’ve got to prevent against more cases.”

Mr Morrison said the PCR testing was not a requirement of the Commonwealth, rather a unilateral decision made by individual jurisdictions.

People queued in their cars for hours with some cars being turned away due to high volumes of traffic and long wait times at the Willoughby drive through testing site in Sydney. Picture: NCA Newswire / Gaye Gerard

Mr Morrison said earlier he was considering making rapid antigen tests free and widely available, amid “worst case scenario” reports that case numbers could reach 200,000 cases by early next year.

The national cabinet met for an emergency meeting on Wednesday to discuss the Omicron variant, which is partly responsible for a rapid growth in case numbers in the eastern states.

Thousands of people have been identified as close or casual contacts and require testing, but added to the burden on testing centres is the demand of Queensland and Tasmania for interstate travellers to receive a negative test before they cross the border.

Long queues at testing sites around the country have pushed pathology labs into overdrive, as the Prime Minister calls on states to find commonality over requirements. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Andrew Henshaw

Mr Morrison earlier said he would be urging states and territories to “get some commonality”, particularly around the PCR testing requirements.

He told the Today Show that those testing clinics should “be there for close contacts, so we can get sensible responses and … find out whether they’re infected”.

“They are the most important tests and the requirements for people to be getting those to travel at the moment, that is putting enormous pressure particularly on NSW and in Victoria, and that is a big reason you are seeing a lot of those queues,” he told Sunrise.

“And the states are going to have to talk to each other about that because decisions are being made in one state, and they are impacting on the testing resources in other states.

“They are the practical issues that we will have to talk to today … (as well as) the role rapid antigen testing (can play) in relieving the burden, particularly rapid antigen testing that can be made available that can enable people to travel.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he would use today’s national cabinet meeting to ask states to reach a common approach, as he considers ramping up the role of rapid antigen testing. Picture: NCA Newswire / Gaye Gerard

Mr Morrison said he would be considering ramping up the role of rapid antigen testing in Australia, after the United States overnight committed to making 500 million at-home tests available. The tests are already free in the United Kingdom.

Mr Morrison said the chief medical officer was “looking at all options” and it wasn’t a question on whether the rapid antigen testing would be made free or subsidised.

“It’s a question in what circumstances and what purposes. We have been looking at how those would be used in schools,” he said.

“We are already using them in things like aged care facilities and we need to focus those resources where they’re needed most.

“I think the real key issue is making sure the rules around testing more generally are much more commonsense to deal with Omicron.”

Originally published as Scott Morrison urges states to find ‘commonality’ over testing requirements