Press Release: Regan Cunliffe
Petition for the urgent removal of the epidemiological criteria for COVID-19 testing.
Regan Cunliffe is petitioning for urgent removal of the epidemiological criteria for COVID-19 testing. Doing so would allow testing for those who meet the clinic criteria but do not meet the epidemiological criteria, namely;
- Travel to or from (excluding airport transit) countries or areas of concern within 14 days before onset of illness
- Close contact or casual contact with a suspect, probable or confirmed case of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the 14 days before onset of illness
“It had been reported that our testing rate is currently 70 tests per million people for COVID-19, significantly less than 800 tests per million in Italy or the 500 tests per million in the UK,” Mr Cunliffe said.
“As the parent of an immuno-compromised child, this is unacceptable. Families like ours, and communities in general, deserve to have better information about the level of risk in the community.”
“The lack of testing has a direct impact on the number of confirmed cases while potentially providing an undercount of the significance of the real problem.”
“We don’t know what we don’t know and now is not the time to be burying our heads in the sand about how widespread cases of SARS-CoV-2 may actually be.”
The petition can be signed here.