South Australian Premier Steven Marshall has provided an update on the state’s COVID-19 response, specifically testing and contact tracing.
The state currently leads the nation, having conducted almost 27,500 COVID-19 tests, with Premier Marshall again commenting on the hard work of SA Pathology.
Testing is taking place at 54 different sites, with 48 of these in regional South Australia.
The Premier also reiterated that non-essential travel to Kangaroo Island is not advised.
SA Contact Tracing Progress:
The Premier announced that as of today, another 300 people will be joining the contact tracing search. There will be an initial transfer of 150 from the public service, and another 150 on standby if required.
These people will work with patients who have contracted COVID-19 to understand who the patients have been in contact with, and track them down.
The 300 includes public servants, medical students, doctors, and others from the public sector.
Dr. Tom Dodd, Clinical Lead of SA Pathology:
- Turnaround time for testing in labs is now 17 hours.
- Currently doing 1,500 tests per day, expect this to rise to 2,000 in coming weeks.
- South Australia has a population of approximately 1.8 million, and 15,000 tests are being performed per million the population.
- Compared to other countries, testing is broad.
- No issues with testing capabilities in Adelaide.
More info to come.
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