Don’t double up: PCR test warning as RATS pump up Covid-19 stats

The inclusion of rapid antigen tests has pumped up Covid-19 stats, with authorities telling those with positive results not to “double up”.

Health officials are urging Australians who get positive rapid antigen tests not to line up for PCR checks, as the inclusion of RATs leads to a significant boost in daily Covid-19 numbers.

Victoria’s daily figures are likely to continue to remain high, with another 44,155 new infections reported on Sunday, after positive RAT results were included in official rates from Saturday.

Out of Sunday’s total case load, 22,051 were identified from rapid results.

But these figures were inflated due to a delay in reporting.

Out of the 22,051 RAT results reported on Sunday, 9000 undertook a test on Saturday, meaning only about 40 per cent of the results were collected within the 24 hours to midnight on Saturday.

Amid news that NSW residents will also be required to register their positive rapid test result with the health department from this week, Victorian Covid commander Jeroen Weimar said he was confident there was no duplication in positive results of people who take a rapid test while they wait for a PCR.

“By and large we will match your record with any other details we have in our system,” he said.

“And I am pretty confident we won’t see a huge amount of duplication as a result.”

Mr Weimar also agreed the integrity of the data would not be compromised, and RAT result numbers would quickly relate to the day the test was actually taken.

“The numbers I expect to get more and more representative through the coming week,” he said. “Let’s be very clear about this, we are not collecting data for the hell of it.”

About 4000 rapid tests were taken in Victoria on Friday, and 2000 were taken up to four days before Saturday. Yet they were included in the overall figures for Saturday, and reported on Sunday.

A huge jump in Victorian cases – 51,356 on Saturday, up from 21,718 on Friday – was recorded with the introduction of the state’s new online reporting system for rapid tests.

In Queensland, 18,000 new cases were reported on Sunday, with 4320 cases that were reported online from rapid tests since noon on Saturday.

Queensland’ chief health officer John Gerrard. Picture: Liam Kidston

Queensland’s chief health officer John Gerrard urged people who had a PCR test not to also register a positive result from a RAT.

“It gives us some idea of the true number of people out there who are testing positive,” he said.

“It’s also important because it will enable us to put them into our care systems.

“We currently have nominally 80,563 cases but we know it’s substantially more. We know there are a lot of people out there who are testing themselves at home or who are simply having symptoms and not testing.

“There are a substantial number of people in the Queensland community who have Covid-19.

“That’s exactly what we expected and what is necessary in order for this virus to ultimately become endemic in the community.”

While the switch to rapid testing and self reporting has alleviated some of the pressure on PCR testing sites, Deakin University chairwoman Catherine Bennett said the data would likely under-represent actual figures.

“While no doubt we are going to pick up more cases by looking at rapid antigen tests, it’s still not a complete picture,” she said.

“There’s going to be a lot of people who get a rapid antigen test and don’t report it … it doesn’t give them financial support or they are not worried about getting more severe illness. Then we have the problem that rapid antigen tests done at home are not as reliable, so that will under count.”