Rapid antigen test shortage keeping police from returning to work
Victoria Police is struggling with a shortage of rapid antigen tests, which are needed to test employees who are currently isolating.
As of 11.59pm on Tuesday, emergency services workers may return to work if they’re a close contact of a positive case, provided they have undertaken RATs for five days prior to attending work and returned a negative result on all tests.
But the police force can’t secure enough tests to get them back to work.
“While Victoria Police has received an initial supply of rapid antigen tests (RATs) and more are expected shortly, we have not yet been able to source a consistent and reliable supply to cover the number that would be required to test all employees currently isolating,” police command said in a statement.
It means Victoria Police employees who are close family contacts will need to continue to isolate.
Victoria Police says “the community can be assured that service delivery to the public will remain unaffected during this time”.
Neil Mitchell understands between 800 and 1000 police are currently isolating, and many would be able to return to work if RATs were available, while Victoria Police has not confirmed that figure, Police Association secretary Wayne Gatt says “it has been … about those sorts of numbers”.
He says the police force has had to “put into place emergency plans just to keep the boat floating” throughout the past few years.
“To some extent, police operations in Victoria have been operating, you could say, under a Code Blue, since the bushfires in 2019,” Mr Gatt told Neil Mitchell.
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