Too many people are going out with COVID-19 symptoms or while awaiting a test result, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has said, after the state hit a bleak new record of 484 new cases.
In Irvine, Calif., a COVID-19 test is retrieved from a drive-in patient at Orange County Great Park. For four weeks, the testing station will see 520 patients per day.
Getty Images / Allen J. Schaben
For the vast majority of people, no — you don’t need a referral to get tested at dedicated public COVID-19 testing clinic. It’s different if you plan to get tested at a private pathology clinic.
If you’ve got a test but haven’t heard back, it’s possible the delay is caused by test samples needing to be taken to interstate labs and the huge scale of testing underway.
Our new modelling shows the risk of an infectious person slipping through New Zealand’s border undetected is very low — likely to happen only once over the next 18 months.
Melbourne isn’t the only place suffering under a second lockdown. It’s happening across the world as the virus surges in countries that were initially successful in flattening the curve.
Deborah Williamson, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity; Allen Cheng, Monash University, and Sharon Lewin, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity
Saliva testing is less sensitive than a nasal swab. But in the midst of a public health crisis, in some cases a test with slightly reduced sensitivity may be better than no test at all.
There’s now a 95% chance COVID-19 has been eliminated in NZ, according to our modelling. But as NZ prepares to remove limits on large gatherings, it increases the risk of a very large new outbreak.
Australia is performing better than many other countries with comparable populations and geographies, a new COVID-19 data visualisation reveals.
Students in Hanoi wait to get their temperatures checked on May 4, 2020, as schools re-opened after a three-month closure to fight the Covid-19 epidemic.
Manan Vatsyayana/AFP
Vietnam is one of the poorest nations in Asia, yet it has had remarkably few Covid-19 cases. In part, the country’s limited resources led to a cautious, proactive approach.
What if you could test yourself for coronavirus with a test in the comfort of your home?
John Paraskevas/Newsday RM vis Getty Images
Testing for coronavirus has been a fiasco in the US. But now companies are developing super fast tests, including ones that might eventually be as simple as at home pregnancy tests.
The SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus is currently detected using invasive nasal swabs. But the virus is also present in saliva, potentially paving the way for cheaper, safer tests that people could do at home.
Test, trace, maintain social distance, and keep travel bans and quarantines in place. These measures will help Australia keep the coronavirus in check as we gradually emerge from lockdown hibernation.
3D medical illustration of coronavirus.
Corona Borealis Studio
Professor and Canada Research Chair in Global Health Governance; Scientific Co-Director, Pacific Institute on Pathogens, Pandemics and Society, Simon Fraser University