❓ A WA parliamentary question regarding the number of COVID-19 cases and the WA Health response to flatten the curve. The Minister provides an update on case numbers, testing regimes, and procurement of PPE.
AnsweredQoN 221Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
CORONAVIRUS — HEALTH SYSTEM RESPONSE
221. Ms J.M. FREEMAN to the Minister for Health:
Thank you. Before I begin, I also thank all the health
workers and emergency services workers, particularly health workers, as my
sister is one of them.
(1) Can the
minister update the house on the number of COVID-19 cases in Western Australia?
(2) Furthermore,
can the minister update the house on the work underway by WA Health services to
flatten the curve?
221. Ms J.M. FREEMAN to the Minister for Health:
Thank you. Before I begin, I also thank all the health
workers and emergency services workers, particularly health workers, as my
sister is one of them.
(1) Can the
minister update the house on the number of COVID-19 cases in Western Australia?
(2) Furthermore,
can the minister update the house on the work underway by WA Health services to
flatten the curve?
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for the question and I, too, join her in
thanking all our healthcare workers. They are doing an extraordinary job, in particular, the member for Mirrabooka's
sister, I am sure, but all healthcare workers throughout our system,
both public and private, are working together to make sure that we can beat
COVID-19.
(1)–(2)
Yes, I think the numbers are fairly pleasing—392 to date. That comes
off the back of yesterday's increase of
28, the extraordinary number of nine the day before, and 17 the day before
that. That is a rolling three- day average of 18 and is something that we
should be very proud of as a Western Australian community. As I said, 392 people have contracted the virus, and 64 of
those have now recovered. From that perspective,
we are seeing the virus slowly make its way through our community, and this is
very pleasing . But we cannot be
complacent. We have to do more. It shows that the measures that we are putting
in place are being effective; it shows that the community is working
together to make sure that we can do this and beat this virus together.
Speaking of ''together'',
we were obviously delighted to work with the Minderoo Foundation over the past
few days to secure supply chains of a range of personal protective and other
equipment. I am very pleased to report that the plane arrived at four minutes
past 10 last night, and the Department of Health is now inspecting the contents
of the payload to make sure that it is up to clinical standards and meets all the necessary requirements. If necessary, we will
send the stuff back and continue to work with our suppliers throughout
the globe to ensure that we have the necessary equipment in all our hospitals
and primary care services, both in country and metropolitan communities, and
for all our healthcare workers everywhere.
As I said yesterday, we are
expanding the testing regime for our COVID-19 clinics. This is an important
measure, to front foot it to that next point, to make sure that we have a good
line of sight and we are continuing to identify where the spread of the virus
is occurring. I said yesterday that we have three aims: to protect the
vulnerable, protect the community and make sure that we have a good line of
sight.
I want to just provide the house with
a quick update on the testing kits, which are now coming to the attention of
many people in the community. A range of kits are coming into the Australian
market, and many people are looking to these kits to provide them with a sense
of security, if you like, to make sure that they are okay and ready to go about
their activities. But can I be clear: the rolled-gold standard of testing is
that used by PathWest. It is the most reliable method, particularly for
detecting the virus early in the illness. To increase our capacity, yesterday, Andrew
Forrest said that he was bringing a portable version of the PathWest kits into Western
Australia, which are known as polymerase chain reaction or PCR kits. It is
important that people understand this distinction. These kits will be
distributed particularly in our rural and regional communities, because we want
to make sure that we get a good diagnosis of patients in these isolated areas
so that their clinical leads can take the right decisions on their behalf,
rather than waiting for the swabs to make their way to Perth for testing. These
will need to be certified by the Therapeutic Goods Administration, but assuming
that they meet that, I understand that private pathology companies will also
use them, which will complement the current testing done by PathWest.
In addition to that, there is a range
of test kits called serology test kits, which claim to provide a diagnosis in
15 minutes, as seen in the pop-up drive-through clinic in Albany. I want to
make it clear that these are blood-based kits that test only for antibodies.
One of the great evils of this virus is that someone can carry the disease for
up to five or six days without having produced any antibodies. These test kits
potentially provide false negatives; that is, they provide someone with a false
sense of security that they do not have the
virus, and then they go about their life, but they are highly infectious and
continue to spread the disease . The Chief Health Officer will be
providing directives to make sure that these are not used in a diagnostic
setting to ensure that people do not get a false sense of security by being
tested by the serology test and getting a false reading that they are clear of
the virus. They may not be. Much work needs to be done to understand the
effectiveness of these kits, but we are taking steps now to ensure that they do
not make their way throughout the community and provide that false sense of
security.
The McGowan government will continue
our strategy to test, trace and isolate, and work with all sectors of the
community to make sure that we can get through this together.
thanking all our healthcare workers. They are doing an extraordinary job, in particular, the member for Mirrabooka's
sister, I am sure, but all healthcare workers throughout our system,
both public and private, are working together to make sure that we can beat
COVID-19.
(1)–(2)
Yes, I think the numbers are fairly pleasing—392 to date. That comes
off the back of yesterday's increase of
28, the extraordinary number of nine the day before, and 17 the day before
that. That is a rolling three- day average of 18 and is something that we
should be very proud of as a Western Australian community. As I said, 392 people have contracted the virus, and 64 of
those have now recovered. From that perspective,
we are seeing the virus slowly make its way through our community, and this is
very pleasing . But we cannot be
complacent. We have to do more. It shows that the measures that we are putting
in place are being effective; it shows that the community is working
together to make sure that we can do this and beat this virus together.
Speaking of ''together'',
we were obviously delighted to work with the Minderoo Foundation over the past
few days to secure supply chains of a range of personal protective and other
equipment. I am very pleased to report that the plane arrived at four minutes
past 10 last night, and the Department of Health is now inspecting the contents
of the payload to make sure that it is up to clinical standards and meets all the necessary requirements. If necessary, we will
send the stuff back and continue to work with our suppliers throughout
the globe to ensure that we have the necessary equipment in all our hospitals
and primary care services, both in country and metropolitan communities, and
for all our healthcare workers everywhere.
As I said yesterday, we are
expanding the testing regime for our COVID-19 clinics. This is an important
measure, to front foot it to that next point, to make sure that we have a good
line of sight and we are continuing to identify where the spread of the virus
is occurring. I said yesterday that we have three aims: to protect the
vulnerable, protect the community and make sure that we have a good line of
sight.
I want to just provide the house with
a quick update on the testing kits, which are now coming to the attention of
many people in the community. A range of kits are coming into the Australian
market, and many people are looking to these kits to provide them with a sense
of security, if you like, to make sure that they are okay and ready to go about
their activities. But can I be clear: the rolled-gold standard of testing is
that used by PathWest. It is the most reliable method, particularly for
detecting the virus early in the illness. To increase our capacity, yesterday, Andrew
Forrest said that he was bringing a portable version of the PathWest kits into Western
Australia, which are known as polymerase chain reaction or PCR kits. It is
important that people understand this distinction. These kits will be
distributed particularly in our rural and regional communities, because we want
to make sure that we get a good diagnosis of patients in these isolated areas
so that their clinical leads can take the right decisions on their behalf,
rather than waiting for the swabs to make their way to Perth for testing. These
will need to be certified by the Therapeutic Goods Administration, but assuming
that they meet that, I understand that private pathology companies will also
use them, which will complement the current testing done by PathWest.
In addition to that, there is a range
of test kits called serology test kits, which claim to provide a diagnosis in
15 minutes, as seen in the pop-up drive-through clinic in Albany. I want to
make it clear that these are blood-based kits that test only for antibodies.
One of the great evils of this virus is that someone can carry the disease for
up to five or six days without having produced any antibodies. These test kits
potentially provide false negatives; that is, they provide someone with a false
sense of security that they do not have the
virus, and then they go about their life, but they are highly infectious and
continue to spread the disease . The Chief Health Officer will be
providing directives to make sure that these are not used in a diagnostic
setting to ensure that people do not get a false sense of security by being
tested by the serology test and getting a false reading that they are clear of
the virus. They may not be. Much work needs to be done to understand the
effectiveness of these kits, but we are taking steps now to ensure that they do
not make their way throughout the community and provide that false sense of
security.
The McGowan government will continue
our strategy to test, trace and isolate, and work with all sectors of the
community to make sure that we can get through this together.
Explore WA Government Data
Search the full archive in the free dashboard, or query programmatically via API.
Explore more
Government Gazette
Appointments, regulatory notices, planning changes.
Hansard
Debates, questions, speeches and sentiment.
Tabled Papers
Reports and documents tabled in Parliament.
Committees
Committee profiles and recent reports.
Regulations
Subsidiary legislation with filters and summaries.
Bills
Proposed laws and parliamentary progress.
Acts
Current WA legislation and summaries.
Explanatory Memoranda
Bills with EMs (text/PDF) available.
Members
MP profiles, party breakdown and rankings.
Pollie Rankings
Data-driven rankings across 19 categories.
Amendment Chains
Track how schemes and regulations evolve over time.