Coronavirus: Experts warn on testing cuts ‘at crucial time’

NSW’s strategy of sustaining ‘high rates’ of testing could be undermined by a move to close six pop-up clinics.

NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant in Sydney on Wednesday. Picture: David Swift

NSW’s coronavirus containment strategy of sustaining “high rates” of COVID-19 testing in hotspots across southwestern Sydney could be undermined by a controversial move to prematurely close six pop-up clinics at the weekend.

The revelation comes after NSW recorded three mystery cases of COVID-19 in western and southwestern Sydney on Thursday, while the Crossroads Hotel outbreak grew to 40 cases.

Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant conceded contact tracers may have “missed a chain” after virus detectives were unable to connect three cases of “unknown origin” to the state’s reported total of 15 new cases on Thursday.

“This is a critical time as we try to mop up any community transmission,” Dr Chant said.

“The key message (is) we need to sustain high rates of testing in southwestern Sydney.”

The South Western Sydney Local Health District, however, is scheduled to close six pop-up and drive-through COVID-19 clinics over the weekend.

The decision to slash testing sites from about 12 to just six comes despite a dire warning from Dr Chant that NSW is in a “critical” stage of contagion defined by growing community transmission in southwestern Sydney.

Testing will no longer be off­ered at the Crossroads Hotel in Casula and Victoria Park in Picton from Saturday, while the Leumeah drive-through clinic and the Narellan walk-in clinic are both set to close at 6pm on Friday.

Health officials are also expected to shut walk-in clinics at Camden Hospital and Moss Vale Showground on Sunday.

The sharp reduction in services will shift the burden of testing onto the region’s GPs and the ­already stretched hospitals, including at Campbelltown, Bowral, Liverpool, Fairfield and Bankstown-Lidcombe.

A drive-through clinic at the Ash Road Sporting Complex in Prestons is currently the only temporary testing site scheduled to remain open after the weekend, with a closure date of July 26.

 

University of NSW epidemiologist Mary-Louise McLaws said pop-up clinics in southwestern Sydney were “critical” given the “seriousness” of the outbreak in that region.

“Pop-up clinics are incredibly important and it would definitely be advantageous to keep them open for longer,” Professor McLaws told The Australian.

“It would help authorities not just identify secondary infections from those social venues, but also potentially pick up that third generation (of infections).”

The Australian understands some of the pop-up clinics are testing between 400 to 1000 people each day.

Dr Chant said authorities were “reinterviewing” three cases with unknown origin that emerged on Thursday to determine whether they were at any of the 20 venues linked with the Casula outbreak.

The pub at the epicentre of Sydney’s COVID-19 crisis has also launched a passionate defence of the company’s response to the outbreak as the number of venues impacted by the cluster jumped to 20 on Thursday.

The managing director of the Marlow Hotel Group, Jason Marlow, dismissed accusations that Crossroads Hotel staff failed to follow public health obligations.

“I haven’t had a chance to ­interview all my staff yet, but I have access to 48 cameras and I have not seen any evidence of people not signing in,” he told The Australian.

Mr Marlow said only one staff member, an 18-year-old male, had tested positive for COVID-19 out of 78 employees.

The South Western Sydney Local Health District did not respond to a request for comment.