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Several health experts are urging the Victorian government to embrace rapid antigen testing for coronavirus, arguing that the technology is cheap, improving in accuracy and could help keep borders open and strengthen hotel quarantine.
One leading Australian manufacturer of the 15-minute tests says the public health policy around the technology is “dogmatic and not flexible”, criticising the government for relying on lab-based pathology without proper consideration of other testing strategies being used overseas.
A volunteer takes a rapid antigen screening test in Barcelona in December.
Credit:AP
Rapid antigen tests are relatively inexpensive compared to the common PCR tests (the nasal and throat swabs), however, results are less accurate. A total of 19 rapid antigen tests have been approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration.
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To achieve herd immunity, we would need to cut the R value by between 45 and 55 per cent, said Associate Professor James Wood, a University of NSW vaccine modeller and member of the federal government’s Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation.
“That would theoretically be achievable with a vaccine with 70 per cent efficacy against transmission but would require in particular high coverage in the 18-35 year group, which appear to contribute a greater fraction of transmission.”
But there is now a complicating factor that did not exist six months ago: the emergence of B.1.1.7, a variant of the coronavirus that is substantially more transmissible.
Australian officials are seeking more information about the Pfizer vaccine after 13 frail aged care residents in Norway experienced side effects and died after receiving the jab.
A scientist who led the development of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine on Friday warned Australia against delaying its rollout.The Australian and New Zealand Society for Immunology recently called on the Canberra government to pause its .