Covid tests that return results in less than an hour will be rolled out across Victoria’s courts, prompting calls for them to be used across the state.Rapid Covid-19 testing will be rolled out across Victorian courts prompting calls to introduce the tests more broadly.
The tests, which involve a pinprick blood test, will be used to screen participants including judges, lawyers and jurors who become symptomatic while involved in a jury trial.Results will be returned in less than an hour and will prevents trials being delayed while awaiting results from traditional nasal and throat swab testing.
Court sources have described the move as a “game changer” as a backlog of 100,000 cases and delays of up to three years plaguing the justice system.The rapid antigen tests will be introduced in Victorian courts.
Picture: They say it will also curb day-long delays that have thrown some cases into chaos.
The introduction of the tests, which will be used in the County and Supreme Courts, was an initiative of Court Services Victoria and has sparked calls for the testing to be more widely used.
Atomo Diagnostics chief John Kelly, whose company produces rapid antigen tests, said the ongoing resistance of public health authorities to embrace the method was no longer justifiable.Mr Kelly said the rapid tests — some which involve a blood pinprick and others nasal swabs — were being widely used overseas and could be bought at supermarkets, pharmacies and petrol stations. “You can buy self tests at ALDI in Germany, in the UK they’re handing them out to schoolkids to take home, you need them to fly internally in Europe, its prevalent there,” he said. Atomo Diagnostics chief John Kelly, whose company produces rapid antigen tests. “They’re even talking in France about needing to show a test result or a vaccine certificate to get into restaurants and theatres.“We’re seeing the opposite, we’re seeing entrenched resistance from public health here.”Mr Kelly said the rapid testing had been used in small pockets across Australia including by Opera Australia and some Olympic sporting teams. But he called on the authorities to introduce wider use of the tests in a range of settings including airports, aged care homes and large events.“Testing more regularly, with a slightly less sensitive test, has been proven overseas to be a better way to screen risk out of those types of settings.“So it’s the cost and the speed of result that make rapid testing uniquely suitable for managing community wide sort of return to work.”
A recent study led by the Doherty Institute found a 99.96 per cent specificity, meaning four in 10,000 tests would return a false positive result.A health worker conducts a rapid antigen test in Bangalore, India.
Opposition health spokeswoman Georgie Crozier said Queensland medical technology manufacturer Ellume was already supplying the rapid tests to the US defence force and various airlines.She said the tests would be especially useful to allow visitations to hospitals and aged care homes during outbreaks rather than a blanket no visitation policy.“Rapid testing is being used around the world to assist in the management of COVID-19 and should be used in Victoria,” she said.“After four lockdowns, the Andrews Labor Government still has no plan for Victorian jobs, small business, events or our economic recovery. The Liberal Nationals have been calling for the use of rapid testing as a tool that will assist with that recovery.”A government spokesperson said the rapid testing would help provide an extra layer of assurance for court participants and was a further measure to avoid delays.“
While PCR tests provide the most reliable results and remain mandatory, adding the option of rapid testing will provide an additional early warning system to keep trial participants and the wider community safe,” she said.
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