Tasmanians will welcome news of increased capacity within the state to test for COVID-19, but will expect to see that capacity put to use.
Labor Leader Rebecca White said the increased capacity makes it possible for the state government to move to a far broader testing regime.
"Tripling our capacity to test for COVID-19 must bring with it a demonstrated increase in the rate of testing.
"An immediate focus for testing should be health workers and other people quarantined as a result of the North West outbreak.
"We have nearly one thousand health care workers and hospital staff in quarantine as a result of the outbreak in the North West. Some of them have already tested positive to COVID-19 after developing symptoms.
"Tasmania's increased testing capacity should be used to test all staff who are quarantined, regardless of whether they have symptoms, and all patients who were at the North West Regional Hospital or the North West Private Hospital.
"That's the approach taken for aged care facilities potentially exposed to the virus, and the same logic should apply to people who may have been exposed at these two hospitals."
Ms White said Tasmania has the highest per capita death rate from COVID-19 but we are still not doing everything we can to identify positive cases in the community so we can put in place effective management.
"We know that a significant proportion of all positive cases in Australia have been asymptomatic.
"Increasing our testing regime to include random sampling in the community will give us a better picture of the true impact of the outbreak in the North West of the state, and more broadly."
"I urge the government to take a far more aggressive approach to testing for COVID-19.
"There is no point increasing capacity to test if we do not make full use of that capacity."
Rebecca White
Labor Leader
