❓ A parliamentary question regarding delays in COVID-19 communication to schools and the capacity of the Department of Health to manage testing, tracing, and communication. The Minister's response defends the department's processes and criticizes the opposition's understanding of the situation.
AnsweredQoN 98Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
CORONAVIRUS — SCHOOLS — CONTACT TRACING
98. Mr P.J. RUNDLE to the Minister for Health:
Can I acknowledge the passing of
Jack Bendat, OAM, a remarkable businessman and philanthropist. Our thoughts are
with his late wife, Eleanor, and family, friends and colleagues. Can I also
acknowledge his great contribution to the Perth Wildcats.
I refer to reports of principals
waiting up to 10 hours for approval from the Department of Health to notify
impacted staff, students and parents of COVID-19 infections in their schools,
and to the fact that schools will now be responsible for their own contact
tracing.
(1) Is this a sign that the minister's
department is already overwhelmed and unable to cope with COVID testing ,
tracing and communication?
(2) Why is communication of critical information from
the minister's department to our schools taking so long?
98. Mr P.J. RUNDLE to the Minister for Health:
Can I acknowledge the passing of
Jack Bendat, OAM, a remarkable businessman and philanthropist. Our thoughts are
with his late wife, Eleanor, and family, friends and colleagues. Can I also
acknowledge his great contribution to the Perth Wildcats.
I refer to reports of principals
waiting up to 10 hours for approval from the Department of Health to notify
impacted staff, students and parents of COVID-19 infections in their schools,
and to the fact that schools will now be responsible for their own contact
tracing.
(1) Is this a sign that the minister's
department is already overwhelmed and unable to cope with COVID testing ,
tracing and communication?
(2) Why is communication of critical information from
the minister's department to our schools taking so long?
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for his
question.
(1)–(2) The
public health team waits for confirmation of positive results before it allows
principals or requests principals to
communicate. A range of processes need to happen so that we do not cause undue
panic, undue concern and undue unrest. The department works on evidence,
and that evidence has to be a confirmed positive result, before principals are
asked to then contact their students or notify schools. There is a lag
sometimes with getting those tests done. We work in an orderly and focused
process that allows for contacts to be notified and principals to put in place
the measures that they need to.
It is clear that the opposition has
not done its homework at all or read any of the information that the government
has put up about what a high case load setting is and moving to a very high
case load setting, and what happens to contact tracing, and what happens to
testing, tracing and isolating. There are clear parameters around that and
clear processes that we go through. If the opposition was paying any attention
at all to what has happened in the eastern states, it would know that we as a government
have been putting out clear guidelines and information before we get to the
very high case load setting—before we get there. Other states and
territories were scrambling and changing the rules every five minutes to try to
keep up and manage the outbreak and the furlough. We have put out that
information before it happens. It is on the website, member; I suggest you read
it. It is very informative.
I will outline what happens when we
get to over 500 cases. This is a standard public health process. This is not
the Western Australian Department of Health; this is standard public health.
Once we get to between 500 and 1 000 cases a day, it starts to get very, very
hard to contact trace, test and isolate all those cases. Therefore, essentially, public health contact
tracers focus on high-risk sites like aged-care settings, hospitals ,
police and essential services. They focus on those high-risk sites that we need
to keep moving. We then shift to a model
whereby we ask those organisations that have the capacity to make contact with
the people that they need to, like schools and school principals. This
is not a shock. It is not a surprise. It is a standard way of operating. It is
how we manage a significant outbreak, which is where we are now. I suggest that members opposite do their homework and look
at the material. There is a lot to go through, because there is a lot happening right now. I suggest that you
actually read the material before you ask those silly questions.
question.
(1)–(2) The
public health team waits for confirmation of positive results before it allows
principals or requests principals to
communicate. A range of processes need to happen so that we do not cause undue
panic, undue concern and undue unrest. The department works on evidence,
and that evidence has to be a confirmed positive result, before principals are
asked to then contact their students or notify schools. There is a lag
sometimes with getting those tests done. We work in an orderly and focused
process that allows for contacts to be notified and principals to put in place
the measures that they need to.
It is clear that the opposition has
not done its homework at all or read any of the information that the government
has put up about what a high case load setting is and moving to a very high
case load setting, and what happens to contact tracing, and what happens to
testing, tracing and isolating. There are clear parameters around that and
clear processes that we go through. If the opposition was paying any attention
at all to what has happened in the eastern states, it would know that we as a government
have been putting out clear guidelines and information before we get to the
very high case load setting—before we get there. Other states and
territories were scrambling and changing the rules every five minutes to try to
keep up and manage the outbreak and the furlough. We have put out that
information before it happens. It is on the website, member; I suggest you read
it. It is very informative.
I will outline what happens when we
get to over 500 cases. This is a standard public health process. This is not
the Western Australian Department of Health; this is standard public health.
Once we get to between 500 and 1 000 cases a day, it starts to get very, very
hard to contact trace, test and isolate all those cases. Therefore, essentially, public health contact
tracers focus on high-risk sites like aged-care settings, hospitals ,
police and essential services. They focus on those high-risk sites that we need
to keep moving. We then shift to a model
whereby we ask those organisations that have the capacity to make contact with
the people that they need to, like schools and school principals. This
is not a shock. It is not a surprise. It is a standard way of operating. It is
how we manage a significant outbreak, which is where we are now. I suggest that members opposite do their homework and look
at the material. There is a lot to go through, because there is a lot happening right now. I suggest that you
actually read the material before you ask those silly questions.
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