As surging COVID-19 infections put Australia’s healthcare system under significant strain, state governments are asking people to reconsider their need for PCR tests, ambulances and hospital emergency departments:
A sign shows a Covid-19 testing site as people queue outside Alfred Hospital on 22 December 2021 in Melbourne, Australia.After being identified as a close contact, Pixel Harman lined up at a walk-in clinic in Sydney on 22 December to get a PCR test.
As surging COVID-19 infections put Australia’s healthcare system under significant strain, state governments are asking people to reconsider their need for PCR tests, ambulances and presence at emergency departments. On Sunday, it was revealed that more than 400 people in Sydney were incorrectly told they had tested negative to COVID-19 but were positive for the virus.Noting hospital staff are “run off their feet”, Mr Hazzard urged people who test positive for the virus to reconsider their need to go to hospital and call an ambulance.
The first three days after infection are often the most important for at-risk people to get treatment and delayed results could impact their health care, she said. Professor Alexandra Martiniuk, an epidemiology professor at the University of Sydney, said Australia’s hospitals could soon face increasing burdens as the variant spreads to healthcare workers.
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