Apathy about testing for COVID-19 is why numbers have fallen, say experts, after the latest report by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Head of the University of Melbourne’s school of health and science Bruce Thompson said the decline in testing was likely due to COVID ‘‘apathy’’.
“People feel that we’ve been doing this for a long time. You would think that potentially, if [there are less people testing] that it’s actually less people contracting the virus. But that doesn’t seem to be the case,’’ he said.
The number of households that reported cold, flu or COVID symptoms has risen while testing numbers have fallen.
According to the ABS’ Household Impacts of COVID-19 Survey for July, 48 per cent of households said someone within their household had been tested in July, either by rapid antigen test or PCR, a 14 per cent decline from April.
But 10 per cent more households reported someone in their household had experienced cold, flu or COVID symptoms – 42 per cent, up from 32 per cent in April.
Whereas rapid antigen tests were hard to come by earlier in the year, Dr Thompson said the recent slump in testing rates was almost certainly one of choice.
‘‘It’s definitely not things like access to tests … it’s literally a behavioural thing of ‘Actually, no, I don’t want to be tested’.’’
Isolation unpopular
Associate professor at the University of Queensland’s school of medicine Paul Griffin said the decision not to test was likely so people could steer clear of isolation.
‘‘Anecdotally, many people have reported to me that they’ve had symptoms and haven’t tested because they can’t afford to be off work for seven days, or because they’ve got something significant coming up within seven days, they don’t want to miss,’’ Dr Griffin said.
‘‘So the burden of that seven days of isolation, I think, is leading many people to not getting tested. So we’re probably not finding cases as a result of that.’’
The survey also found only 15.3 per cent of households reported disruptions to school or child care in July compared to 32.7 per cent of respondents in April.
Inconsistent rules
The survey results came as the national cabinet reduced COVID-19 isolation requirements from seven days to five.
It also announced an end to mask wearing on domestic flights from September 9.
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet lobbied hard for the changes.
But workers in high-risk settings, such as aged care, will still need to isolate for seven days, as well as those with symptoms.
The news prompted outrage from the president of the Australian Medical Association, Professor Steve Robson, who called on the government to release the health advice they had considered to make the decision.
‘‘The AMA, like a lot of medical groups and doctors around the country, were puzzled by the decision yesterday, the political decision to reduce isolation,’’ he said on Thursday.
‘‘We’re puzzled they won’t release the health advice underpinning that … we’re calling for that to be released, so the politicians can justify to the public why they’re making this decision.’’
Dr Thompson said the fact that seven-day isolation remained for workers in high-risk settings was an admission that ‘‘it’s probably not optimal’’.
‘‘However, the government’s also taking a bit of a bandage way to say, ‘Look, you can go for five days, except for people who work in areas of aged care or health workers’. So effectively, they’re acknowledging it’s probably not optimal,’’ he said.
However, Dr Griffin applauded the change to isolation requirements.
‘‘I think it was a really good move personally … We know that even at seven days, there’ll be a proportion of people who still may be infectious afterwards,’’ he said.
‘‘There’s already a lot of people in the community infectious, even at seven days. And so the reduction to five will make very little difference.’’
