‘Unsatisfactory’: Infectious disease expert slams decision to change rapid Covid-19 testing for staff in Howard Springs

A controversial decision to change rapid Covid-19 testing for staff in Howard Springs has been slammed as ‘unsatisfactory’ by an infectious disease physician.

• Covid-19 testing changes alarm Howard Springs quarantine staff

A controversial decision to change rapid Covid-19 testing for staff in Howard Springs has been slammed as “unsatisfactory” by an infectious disease physician.

Staff at the NT Government-run quarantine facility have been moved from taking rapid antigen nasal tests to oral, saliva-only PCR tests.

Perth-based physician in infection management, Dr Clay Golledge told ABC radio Darwin he thought the decision “was a change for the worse” and the “gold standard” in testing had to include a nose and throat sample, rather than just saliva.

“I’m not seeing too many positives in this decision,” he said.

“The false negative rate is, in other words, missing a true positive with PCR and saliva is actually higher so really you’re worrying about a very low false positive rate when you should be worried about a higher false negative rate.

“(The change) is really inverting it all, and of course the slowness of getting a response is also that a PCR takes many hours against 10 to 15 minutes, so people aren’t getting the results straight away before they go home.”

Dr Golledge said feedback from his medical colleagues in the Northern Territory were that of dissatisfaction that it’s taking a couple of days to get their results.

“The rapid antigen tests are good. They’re very sensitive, they’re very specific … you can get a result in 10 minutes and people can be reassured that they’re not carrying the virus before they do go home or leave their shift so hopefully they’ll revert back.”

This week Health Minister Natasha Fyles adamantly denied the decision was made to cut costs, as the government receives rebates with PCR testing.

Follow @jasmineaburke