South Australia’s Premier Steven Marshall announced today the next State Government initiative that’s set to take place over the next two weeks.
The Premier has encouraged the public to embrace what he calls a testing blitz, where all 54 clinics across will be accepting anyone with symptoms whether they be mild or acute, to be tested.
COVID-19 clinics do not require a referral, however you will be assessed prior to testing.
The drive through testing clinics will require GP contact with referral form, this GP assessment can be via a telephone, and the form can be faxed to the clinic.
SA Health’s Chief Public Health Officer, Associate Professor Nicola Spurrier also elaborated on the blitz, saying that anyone with symptoms should go and get tested, whether these symptoms are a cough, sore throat, runny nose, mild fever, to acute respiratory symptoms.
“Our experience with the Adelaide Airport cluster and evaluation of similar clusters interstate is that some of the cases we identified had quite mild symptoms,” said Professor Spurrier.
“Although our expertise in contact tracing is world-class, we want to ensure that absolutely every case of COVID-19 in South Australia is identified to provide the best protection to individuals, their families, friends and the community.
The testing blitz will commence Thursday 16 April 2020, and run until close of business, 30 April 2020.
At the completion of the blitz, testing data will be reviewed and a determination will be made on whether the strategy needs to be modified and testing criteria adjusted accordingly.
Dr Tom Dodd, Clinical Services Director from SA Pathology, said there is ample stock of testing kits to undertake the two-week blitz.
“Of the more than 34,000 individuals who have been tested, we have had positive test results return in just 1.3 per cent of people,” Dr Dodd said.
“There have been 37,500 COVID-19 laboratory tests conducted by SA Pathology to date and while there were some initial concerns about the availability of the testing reagent worldwide, we have stock for 45,000 tests on hand.”
Today’s COVID-19 Statistics
Cases have not increased with zero new cases and 279 people who have recovered, making 64% of all SA’s cases.
There is currently only one person in ICU, a 68 year old man in critical condition.
She also provided an update on the ICU nurse who is at home and stable, with 26 associated contacts asked to quarantine.
More to come.
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