News Karnataka
Thursday, March 28 2024
Cricket
World

Covid surge overwhelms Covid testing facilities in Aus state

Aus airlines brace for hectic days as school holidays begin
Photo Credit :

Sydney: Covid-19 testing facilities in Australia’s most populated state of New South Wales (NSW) are being overwhelmed due to the massive daily surge in case numbers during the year’s busiest holiday season.

NSW reported a record-high 11,201 new cases on Wednesday and three deaths, with hospital admissions rising to 625, which is 68 more than Tuesday, reports Xinhua news agency.

The disease’s frenetic transmission rate is placing unprecedented pressure on the state’s health system, with people frequently queuing for over six hours to receive their PCR tests and then waiting for several days for results when time is of the essence.

There were 157,758 tests in the last 24 hours, up from 93,581 the previous day.

Adding to the PCR demand is that many Australians travel interstate during the Christmas and New Year season with an array of border controls placed to try and contain the disease.

NSW leaders had in recent days strongly urged their northern neighbour, Queensland, to ease its PCR test entry requirements.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard on Tuesday said Queensland’s border policy had further strained his state’s struggling healthcare facilities because many of those in the seemingly endless queues were not ill but needed to test negative in order to travel north.

“Between now and January 1, there can easily be another 100,000 to 150,000 tests purely and simply for people who want to holiday in Queensland,” Hazzard told reporters.

The chaotic situation led to an overburdened pathology lab in Sydney incorrectly notifying about 1,400 people earlier this week that they had tested negative, in fact, their results had not yet been confirmed.

On Tuesday afternoon, the laboratory issued a statement saying 486 had now been validated as Covid-19 positive.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced on Wednesday morning that the state would soon scrap its requirement for pre-arrival PCR tests.

From January 1, travellers into Queensland from interstate hotspots can use a negative rapid antigen test (RAT) to satisfy border pass requirements.

Increasingly, the RAT is being seen as cheaper and faster, although not quite as accurate, alternative to PCR, the at-home tests could eventually reduce the long queues at NSW test centres.

The NSW government announced on Tuesday that it had ordered 20 million RAT kits, which are due to arrive next month and be offered free to the public.

Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet said such sensible measures would ultimately help the state “lead the nation out of the pandemic”.

Perrottet urged people not to unnecessarily join the overstretched PCR queues.

“If you are not unwell and have not been advised to receive a PCR test, then you should not be lining up for one,” he said.

Share this:
MANY DROPS MAKE AN OCEAN
Support NewsKarnataka's quality independent journalism with a small contribution.

How useful was this post?

Click on a star to rate it!

Average rating 0 / 5. Vote count: 0

No votes so far! Be the first to rate this post.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

To get the latest news on WhatsApp