Australian Reports of the Virus Spread

[drron]

Now 120 hours and no result for my niece.They live ,1KM from the Showground so that's where they go for testing.

 

[SydneySwan]

Results from RNSH (major NSW public hospital) took 80+ hours for a colleague and we are now up to 52 hours from same place and still waiting....to get out of isolation (Close contact). Above colleague's son finally got his +ve results back after 6 days...had symptoms with 3 positive rapids...irony is that in 4 days time, he no longer has to isolate and needs no more testing! The collection and PCR testing in Sydney is completely overwhelmed and broken...more "special" leave for us.

Have to agree with this. Mrs SS got tested at RNSH at 9am Xmas morning (52.5 hours ago) and is still waiting. She is a medic and their results are supposedly prioritised. She needs the negative result to exit isolation.

 

[Lynda2475]

Now 120 hours and no result for my niece.They live ,1KM from the Showground so that's where they go for testing.

There are lots of showground test sites, but from what I can see they all seem to be run by DHM or Laverty, best avoided.

If i didnt have my reults in 48 hours I would go to another state run or histopath run site, advise no result and symptoms and you get bumped up the queue. People who were showing positive RATs were beng allowed to queue jump on Xmas day. And if you are too sick to leave home, they wil send someone to test you, if you call.

At Concord there is also a express queue for SLHD workers provided you have ID - wait time is about 10mins for that line.

 

[SydneySwan]

There are lots of showground test sites, but from what I can see they all seem to be run by DHM or Laverty, best avoided.

If i didnt have my reults in 48 hours I would go to another state run or histopath run site, advise no result and symptoms and you get bumped up the queue. People who were showing positive RATs were beng allowed to queue jump on Xmas day. And if you are too sick to leave home, they wil send someone to test you, if you call.

At Concord there is also a express queue for SLHD workers provided you have ID - wait time is about 10mins for that line.

The problem is not getting tested - it is getting the results. And then hoping they are accurate…..

 

[Quickstatus]

World Test Championship purpose

Maybe the team, but Most cricket enthusiasts I know don’t give a rats a… about World Test champ points.

They only care about beating the poms

So if Covid stops the tests now we retain the Ashes.

120hrs now in test results limbo for a friend who is a close contact.

 

[Lynda2475]

The problem is not getting tested - it is getting the results.

Well that problem only seems to exist at some sites, as I posted earlier I got my results in 42 hours, a friend at another site in 36 both tetsed on Xmas Day (the day which had the fewest test sites open). It pays to do some research re which sites are meeting the 48 hour processing window. interesting we both went to walk in only sites.

 

[oznflfan]

Now 120 hours and no result for my niece.They live ,1KM from the Showground so that's where they go for testing.

Bring on January whereby most testing will be RAT, smaller states will follow big brothers in month or two. Outlier state will still want to be stubborn for some months into 2022 and let it's constituents kiss his foot in appreciation of being (probably) partially let out of prison.

 

[N860CR]

The problem is not getting tested - it is getting the results. And then hoping they are accurate…..

As long as it says negative, does one really care?

 

[Quickstatus]

Very easy for the politicians to fix this problem of prolonged test results limbo

Change the wording to
“Isolate until a negative test result is returned or 48hrs as long as you are asymptomatic.

 

[Quickstatus]

As long as it says negative

So there are those who were positive and incorrect messages to say they were negative but latergot a message to say they were actually positive.

Then there are those who are actually False negatives - ie those who tested negative, and reported correctly as negative but who are truly positive.

I calculate 200-500 may be false negatives in Australia based on the recent test numbers of 300,000 a day - see another post about this. They will be happily out and about secure in the knowledge the test says negative but….

Lots of media reports about the group who got the wrong message. But nothing about the false negative and for that matter a false positive rate.

 

[HappyFlyerFamily]

I thought there is minimal close contact testing in NSW. I thought the new meaning of close is effectively household.

Hospital staff might have more stringent rules that requires asymptomatic testing for contact, but I think the general public (vaxxed) in NSW don’t have an asymptomatic testing requirement except for travel.

 

[N860CR]

So there are those who were positive and incorrect messages to say they were negative but latergot a message to say they were actually positive.

Then there are those who are actually False negatives - ie those who tested negative, and reported correctly as negative but who are truly positive.

I calculate 200-500 may be false negatives in Australia based on the recent test numbers of 300,000 a day - see another post about this. They will be happily out and about secure in the knowledge the test says negative but….

Oh yes a false positive would be a right pain in the backside. But false negative seems like a good outcome in the current climate.

 

[Quickstatus]

false negative seems like a good outcome in the current climate.

No no noooo!!! Bad outcome.

False negatives are those people who tested negative, got told they are negative but who in fact are positive.

They will be merrily out and about spreading the virus.

(False positives are those who tested positive, got told they are positive but who in fact are negative - PITA because they have to isolate/quarantine etc)

See here and the Annex section of the downloaded paper for some calculation illustrating this.


Targeted testing reduces the false results.

 

[N860CR]

No no noooo!!! Bad outcome.

False negatives are those people who tested negative, got told they are negative but who in fact are positive.

They will be merrily out and about spreading the virus.

(False positives are those who tested positive, got told they are positive but who in fact are negative - PITA because they have to isolate/quarantine etc)

Guess it depends on your view moving forward. Spreading the virus is a good result in my view until we become immune from the political grandstanding. We don’t test for the common cold, and yes people with a cold will generally stay home to prevent “spreading it”. I guess the difference with this virus is that the majority of people don’t even know they’ve “got it”, so it’s far less severe than a cold.

But then that makes one ask the question, wtf are we even doing?

 

[Quickstatus]

wtf are we even doing?

Fear mongering is the name of the game

The media does not report on the inherent problems with testing, rather it will report on a similar number of people who got told the wrong info.

 

[Milboo]

You don’t need to have the test result to apply for the border pass to QLD. I’d taken the test but didn’t have results, but could still answer the question. I uploaded the other documents required and applied. They asked to see the text message result separately at airport on arrival.

 

[oz_mark]

Bring on January whereby most testing will be RAT, smaller states will follow big brothers in month or two. Outlier state will still want to be stubborn for some months into 2022 and let it's constituents kiss his foot in appreciation of being (probably) partially let out of prison.

It's ridiculous.

(And I think a gloating 'crush and kill' the virus might be coming our way shortly, or maybe it's a 'we need more information' presser...)

 

[N860CR]

You don’t need to have the test result to apply for the border pass to QLD. I’d taken the test but didn’t have results, but could still answer the question. I uploaded the other documents required and applied. They asked to see the text message result separately at airport on arrival.

That could be a change. It definitely asked if I had a negative result and asked me to upload it when I went last week.

It’s a totally automated process so there would be nothing to stop you xeroxing your bum and attaching that at the test result (and still receiving the correct pass), but the issue is if somebody checks

 

[justinbrett]

You don’t need to have the test result to apply for the border pass to QLD. I’d taken the test but didn’t have results, but could still answer the question. I uploaded the other documents required and applied. They asked to see the text message result separately at airport on arrival.

Technically you do need to have the negative result before applying and attach the result to your application.

However in practice it will still be approved without it. Small chance of an audit and someone may call to ask for it (in addition to showing it at the border/airport)

 

[Milboo]

True. And it also requires you to notify if anything changes so it is possible to do it in advance. As you say, it’s fully automated so there is no checking to approve it.