Coronavirus: Victoria’s testing rates lag behind Queensland

Victoria is trailing Queensland by many thousands of tests, despite easily overtaking the state on total number of ­virus cases.

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Victoria’s failure to keep pace with Queensland’s coronavirus testing regime is being blamed on an ­inability to strategically harness the private sector quickly enough and a lack of testing resources.

Victoria has consistently failed to match Queensland, trailing by many thousands of tests, despite easily overtaking the northern state on total number of corona­virus cases.

A major private testing company is warning doctors in Victoria to use only one swab per test and to ration reagent testing kits amid concerns about resourcing.

Victoria’s Chief Health Officer, Brett Sutton, said on Monday the state’s testing rates were “as high as anywhere’’, despite them lagging significantly behind Queensland.

Victoria's Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton. Picture: AAP

Opposition health spokeswoman Georgie Crozier questioned whether the government had done enough to ensure private pathology agencies had enough resources.

“We’re concerned that Victoria is behind other states in testing large numbers of Victorians, which is putting the community at greater risk,’’ she said.

While Victoria’s public coronavirus website had crashed for well over a day, the government said it had conducted about 42,000 COVID-19 tests, compared with 50,889 tests in Queensland.

This is despite Victoria having a larger population than Queensland and more confirmed cases, 821 compared with 656.

Several days ago, total testing in Victoria was as low as 30,000, according to Health Minister Jenny Mikakos.

Professor Sutton said Victoria had intensified its testing regimen, amid industry speculation that Queensland had conducted a significantly more aggressive testing program when the virus first struck.

“We’re at 3000 to 4000 tests per day. On a per capita basis that’s as high as anywhere, and right up there, as I say, with some of the highest testing rates across the world,” Professor Sutton said on Monday.

“Our private labs were a little bit slower to come online and so our reference lab, the government-supported lab, was doing the bulk of testing, but now there’s a lot of testing going on across the board.

“Where there are settings, like NSW, where there are lots of cases, a lot more testing has had to focus on those areas, and so they have tested the 10, 15 close contacts of every case they’ve had.’’

Under the national testing protocols, people presenting with symptoms of the virus or having had personal contact are tested.

However, there are concerns that some victims in Victoria have missed out on testing. Whether this is the case will become clear in the next month.

On March 17, Ms Mikakos was questioned in the Victorian parliament about the number of swabs and testing kits that were available in Victoria but she refused to say.

At that stage there were only 94 cases in Victoria. Ms Mikakos said the scope of the pandemic in ­places such as Italy had made it harder to source testing kits and other materials.

“So there is currently a national shortage of testing kits and swabs and reagent kits for COVID-19 testing and we are working very hard to source swabs and testing kits,’’ she said.

Private testing company Australian Clinical Labs is telling its doctors: “It is critical that clinicians limit testing to patients who meet the … criteria and use only one swab when testing, as there is significant pressure on supply of swabs and reagent kits for COVID-19 testing.’’