Medical and ethical experts have warned the Victorian government against legislation to force people to take a COVID-19 test after it was revealed that almost 1000 people had declined an offer of door-to-door testing
Premier Daniel Andrews has pleaded for Victorians in the state's infection hotspots not to refuse COVID-19 testing on the same day he announced that 10 of the state's worst-affected postcodes would be locked down to prevent the spread of the virus.
“Because the results, data, information, certainty we get from those tests is in many respects the most powerful tool we have. If someone comes and offers you a test on your doorstep, please make sure the answer is yes. It’s such a powerful thing.”More than 792,000 tests have been conducted in Victoria so far as part of the door-to-door testing blitz by health authorities. A new, less invasive test is being used in priority suburbs.
“Many people are not asymptomatic but have very mild symptoms, which may indicate COVID-19, and this is why it is absolutely essential that anyone who has even the mildest symptoms of fever, cold, flu-like symptoms arrange to get tested and especially for those in the areas of community transmission in Melbourne, stay at home waiting for the results."
“Now, there is legislation that does give public health authorities power to force people to be treated or detained if they are posing a high public health risk to society. For example, somebody who knew they had tuberculosis and they were coughing all over people to try and infect them. But to say that somebody who has refused a coronavirus test and is not symptomatic is endangering people’s lives well, that probably would not pass a legal test nor an ethical one.
Liberty Victoria spokesman Michael Stanton lives in Maidstone, one of the suburbs that is headed back into lockdown.“It’s important people have freedom of choice in relation to testing,” he said. “It is statistically fairly small the number of people who have refused.“It would be too high a cost [on people’s personal liberties] to in effect forcibly require people to undertake a medical procedure against their will, especially when so many people are consenting.
“We cooperate with roadside testing for drugs and alcohol, we don’t have a choice, it’s the law and we all comply because we have seen the damage that certain drugs or alcohol can cause through speeding and poor judgment on the roads,” she said.
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