Probably but the TGA should not have start from scratch when approving the tests. Europe have been using the tests for months. There is one RAT test that has been in use overseas for months. That test is made in Australia and is still not approved for use in Australia and could help fix the stock shortage. Sure they have to be thorough but taking months to approve RAT tests that have been in use for months overseas just seems stupid.
Different countries have different standards, so not simply transferable.
It should not take months to sort it out
A woman in her 70s from the Central Coast died at Wyong Hospital. She was a resident of the Hakea Grove Aged Care facility, where she acquired her infection. She was not vaccinated and had underlying health conditions.
Of the 12,226 cases, 2,229 are from south eastern Sydney, 2,085 from south western Sydney, 2,042 from western Sydney, 1,767 from Sydney, 1,310 from northern Sydney, 708 from Hunter New England, 612 from Nepean Blue Mountains, 291 from Central Coast, 247 from Illawarra Shoalhaven, 244 from Northern NSW, 120 from Mid North Coast, 107 from Southern NSW, 73 from Western NSW, 72 from Murrumbidgee, eight from Far West NSW, three are in correctional settings.
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On track for Brad Hazzardās goal of 25,000 a day in January.
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At this rate, weāll exceed that easily.
I expect another spike next week after New Years celebrations, but hopefully the numbers ease off after that.
Looks like exponential growth in hospitalisation
But still low ICU numbers and deaths. Thatās what we need to watch.
Victoria, however, keep having such high daily deaths. That, I donāt understand.
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Even if hospital numbers grow I donāt think Dom will introduce much in the way of restrictions.
These sort of daily case numbers are probably what the new normal is. Will be ups and downs along the way, like the road to 25k and so on.
Probably delta deaths, remember cases in Victoria were hovering around a 1,000 for several weeks which have a higher mortality rate than omicron.
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Ah, that makes sense. Thanks.
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Does anyone know if Victoria publishes a surveillance report (or similar) like NSW? The answer may be in there
I have checked both Victorian Department of Health website and Victorian COVID-19 website and canāt find any surveillance report on COVID-related deaths.
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NSW testing numbers well down on yesterday, only 97k vs 158k.
Cases still went up, but I think thatās the right outcome so we arenāt putting unnecessary strain on health workers but still identifying and isolating infected citizens.
How have you connected those two dots?
Less tests and more positives means a high test positivity rate of over 12% which suggests there is a huge number of people not being identified as positive and not isolating. Which means more spread and more strain on health workers.
The increasing test positivity rate can be attributed to less people getting tested while asymptomatic, which is logical given that Queensland has dropped the PCR testing requirement now from Jan 1st.
But yes, I certainly donāt doubt there is also a huge number of cases going undetected in asymptomatic cases- the fact that so many cases are asymptomatic proves that the vaccines are doing their job quite nicely.
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Whilst that is always possible, I donāt necessarily agreeā¦ People donāt otherwise spend hours sitting in queues waiting to be tested if they donāt have symptoms. Otherwise everyone should be getting tested just because they might be asymptomatic, which just isnāt possible.
I think the higher positive testing rate is simply because we are removing the largely unnecessary tests.
I wont be surprised if its a blip and the numbers of tests rises again soon.
Sounds like we might have an answer - theyāll be used at testing sites