Analysis: With contact tracing essentially abandoned, some Australians are asking why they need to keep getting tested for the virus at all, and whether those results need to be collected by authorities | michaelkoziol
With more than 100,000 cases of COVID-19 notched up each day in a country of 25 million people, and contact tracing essentially abandoned, some Australians are asking why they need to keep getting tested for the virus at all, and whether those results need to be collected by authorities.
Better data, especially on people’s age, gender, residence and vaccination status, would provide a clearer picture of how the virus was tracking, a preview of what might happen to hospitalisations over coming weeks and prepare us for likely future variants.“It’s just really important information to give us a more comprehensive picture of the cases that are being detected,” Professor Dore said.
“While we were doing COVID-zero and suppression to really low levels, capturing it all was really important,” Professor Collignon said. “Trying to capture all the cases at the moment is pointless ... we need a change of tack.”What was vital now was rigorous sampling that could be extrapolated to the wider population, he said, a point echoed by Professor Catherine Bennett, chair of epidemiology at Deakin University.
“We need to be pulling back on tests in situations where it doesn’t actually make a difference to the person, and my main target at the moment is people who are quarantining because there’s a case in their household,” she said.