Gold Coast test results

Transcript: AMA Queensland Vice President Dr Bav Manoharan, Nine Network, The Today Show with Allison Langdon and Karl Stefanovic, Friday 4 February 2022

Subjects: Gold Coast COVID test research, back to school

ALLISON LANGDON:    Well, a concerning development out of Queensland this morning with random testing confirming COVID is far more widespread than first thought. To discuss, we are joined by AMA Queensland Vice President, Dr Bav Manoharan in Brisbane. Thanks for your time this morning, Doctor. We know a bunch of households were randomly tested with some pretty surprising results, right?

BAV MANOHARAN:    Well, that's right. At the peak of the Gold Coast pandemic, there was about 117 households that were tested randomly. And what that showed was one in six of those people tested had had COVID. And quite surprisingly, 20 per cent of those people who tested positive were symptomatic. So we had a situation where there’s symptomatic people getting tested positive in the peak of the pandemic. It really shows a little bit of complacency and how difficult it has been to get positive test results.

ALLISON LANGDON:    Okay, because I know that this random testing also showed a lot of people had the virus and they didn't know it, but that was because they didn't have any symptoms. You're saying that you were testing people and they had - whether that was a sore throat or feeling fatigued - they had those symptoms, and even then, they weren't going and having a rapid test or a PCR?

BAV MANOHARAN:    We have to acknowledge that during this period, which is thought to be the peak of the Gold Coast outbreak, there were very long lines at our testing centres, and also difficulty getting RAT tests. I think there were difficulties for people who wanted to get tested to get those results. But again, it really speaks to the fact that there's a lot of people with COVID that didn't know they had it going through the community, which probably did lead to an acceleration of the outbreak in the Gold Coast.

ALLISON LANGDON:    Okay, so keeping that in mind with the fact you've got school going back next week, do you think we should be rethinking the use of rapid tests for all students and not just those with symptoms?

BAV MANOHARAN:    It's interesting, isn't it, because normally this time of year, we'd be talking to parents about packing healthy lunch boxes, about backpacks not being too heavy and sunscreen and hats for their kids. But here we are talking about RAT tests and masks and not bringing COVID back to infect their loved ones at home.

The rules we have in Queensland for schools going back is if you're symptomatic, if the kids are symptomatic, they need to get tested. There's a mask mandate for all the kids in high school and the staff and students in high schools, and it's encouraged in kids in Years Three to Six. So there are a few measures in place there. But it's not similar to what we have in New South Wales or Victoria, where there's a twice-weekly test that's taking place. In fact, I think it's a bit more pragmatic. If you're symptomatic, you get tested.

ALLISON LANGDON:    Okay, so you're not a fan of rapid testing all kids going back to school?

BAV MANOHARAN:    Look, if they're asymptomatic, it's not really worth doing the testing for them. I think we just have to be pragmatic and we do have to live with the virus now. In fact, we should be learning from the Gold Coast experience but also learning from what we see in schools and planning for the next potential outbreak in the winter months to come.

ALLISON LANGDON:    Well Doctor, I look forward to the day when we do get back to talking about healthy lunches and how heavy backpacks are. We appreciate your time this morning.