Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Professor Michael Kidd's interview on RN Breakfast - ABC on 18 November 2020

Read the transcript of Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Professor Michael Kidd's interview on RN Breakfast - ABC on 18 November 2020 about coronavirus (COVID-19)

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HAMISH MACDONALD:

Time to look a little closer at the COVID situation in South Australia. The Deputy Chief Medical Officer is Professor Michael Kidd. Good morning to you.

MICHAEL KIDD:

Good morning, Hamish.

HAMISH MACDONALD:

I think you've just received a briefing within the last sort of minute or so on the status of things in South Australia. Can you bring us up to date on where things stand this morning?

MICHAEL KIDD:

Yes, certainly. As we know, we've had 20 cases confirmed in South Australia. There's another 14 people who are being treated at the moment as suspect cases and they're waiting for their test results. We expect those test results will come through today and we'll know whether or not any of those people have been diagnosed with COVID-19. Clearly, it's going to be another big day of testing in Adelaide and the queues are starting to form and additional support has been provided to boost the testing capacity in the state as well.

HAMISH MACDONALD:

The number that the South Australian Government ha s- the Chief Medical Officer has been talking about is 4000 people somehow linked to this cluster. That's an alarming number. So what does that actually refer to?

MICHAEL KIDD:

So it does seem a very large number. But of course, it refers to all the people who have visited the venues, which have been identified as being places where people have been diagnosed with COVID-19 or their contacts have been to, people who may have travelled on public transport at the same time as those people. So as you can imagine, as 20 people have moved around the city over recent days, the number of possible people they could have been in contact with starts to increase quite rapidly. So it's very important that those people are- who we know have been contacted and are in isolation. But also that people are following the news, checking the lists of places to make sure they haven't been there or their family members haven't been there. And if they have, isolate themselves and arrange to get tested.

HAMISH MACDONALD:

Whilst there's a fair degree of alarm around this, it strikes me that the language in response to this is somewhat calmer to the reaction compared with when there was a cluster, an outbreak in Victoria. Is there something that you're seeing in the data or the response that makes this situation in South Australia different?

MICHAEL KIDD:

Well, certainly we're seeing very swift action by the health authorities in South Australia, a very swift decision to accept additional support from the Commonwealth, including the Australian Defence Force personnel and the contact tracing back up from Canberra, from the Commonwealth ..

HAMISH MACDONALD:

[Talks over] What are the Defence personnel there to do?

MICHAEL KIDD:

Well, there’s 100 Defence Force personnel on the ground at the moment. Defence Force personnel have been involved in assisting with testing, with contact tracing, with crowd control, with a number of different measures. But what is really important, as you say, Hamish, is how we react to these outbreaks. We do expect that we’re going to continue to get outbreaks of COVID-19 while the pandemic continues and while we have such very high numbers of people being infected with COVID-19 in other parts of the world. We still, of course, have Australians coming home to be with their families. And some of those people, of course, are being diagnosed with COVID-19 when they're in hotel quarantine. We still have ships arriving at our docks and planes arriving to keep our imports and exports going. So it is really important that we’re able to mount these very vigorous responses whenever an outbreak occurs.

HAMISH MACDONALD:

WA, Queensland, Victoria, Tasmania and the NT have all imposed new border rules on South Australia. New South Wales Premier has just advised residents in that state this morning to try and avoid any non-essential travel to South Australia. Do you think there is an overreaction here? Is this an appropriate response? I would note that South Australia doesn't actually meet the criteria for being a national hotspot right now.

MICHAEL KIDD:

Yes, that's right. So, the Commonwealth definition is 30 cases over three days - an average of 10 cases a day in a metropolitan area – and, as we know, we've only seen 20 diagnosed cases at the moment. Obviously, each state and territory is making its own decisions about, about its borders, and taking action that it feels is appropriate to protect its own population. What's really important, though, is the actions of all of us, as individuals, and making sure that we are continuing to do all the measures that we've all been doing all year to protect ourselves, our families, and the wider community.

HAMISH MCDONALD:

I know there's a formal AHPPC position on border closures, I don't think it's ever recommended them domestically within Australia. But Australia has shut its international borders which I think many would interpret as an indication, or an acknowledgement, that border closures do work. Why shouldn't states do that themselves?

MICHAEL KIDD:

Well, you're right. The closure of the international borders has been incredibly effective, but of course, we're still allowing people to travel through the international border, particularly Australian citizens who are repatriating back home to be with their families. But as I say, the decisions about borders are individual decisions which each states and territories are making.

HAMISH MCDONALD:

There's been a number of breaches of hotel quarantine in multiple jurisdictions in Australia. I know there has been a review conducted by Jane Halton - but does it work? Is this really the right way for Australia to be managing this? Given that there- we know that there is an international spike in COVID numbers, that means that likely a greater proportion of those coming back into Australia into hotel quarantine will be carrying the virus, is doing it this way appropriate?

MICHAEL KIDD:

Well certainly, as you say, we’ve just had a very extensive national review carried out by Professor Jane Halton, which has reinforced the strengths of our hotel quarantine system and programme right across Australia. This programme has allowed literally tens of thousands of people to return back to Australia to be with their family members. Without this level of quarantine - if we hadn't had the hotel quarantine, if people were just coming straight into the community, we know that we would have had far greater number of outbreaks of COVID-19, and the risk, of course, whenever you get an outbreak, is that it can become very serious and people can die as a consequence. So, it has worked very well. Yes, we have seen problems with the hotel quarantining, they continue to be examined, we continue to look at what needs to happen. As a consequence of Professor Houlton's review we have now recommended through the AHHPC that people working in quarantine get tested every week, and those at high risk every seven days.

HAMISH MCDONALD:

[Talks over] Yep, but is that, is that happening yet? I’m a bit confused about that because I’m aware that that was one of Jane Houlton’s recommendations. It’s not clear to me why there’s this lag.

MICHAEL KIDD:

Well, that recommendation has been made by the AHPCC and endorsed by the Chief Health Officers in each of the states and territories. So, that's underway now.

HAMISH MCDONALD:

It is underway? It is happening with all staff in all hotel quarantine across Australia?

MICHAEL KIDD:

It's being implemented by each of the states and territories.

HAMISH MCDONALD:

Are there other things that we could be doing to actually tighten control of this system, beyond that?

MICHAEL KIDD:

Look, I think that, that that is one mechanism of the risk management strategies in place. Clearly, it's incredibly important, as we saw in in the Victorian case, that the infection prevention and control training, supervision, the ongoing support of all the people who are providing their services to work in the hotel quarantine system continues, and continues at a very high and vigorous level with the deep cleaning is reinforced and takes place. Because it only takes one person with COVID-19 to cough and to place the hand on a surface for that to be a place where somebody else puts their hand and then touches their face, you've got transmission of COVID-19. This is such a highly infectious virus that we have to have very high standards and incredible rigour in what we're doing.

HAMISH MCDONALD:

Professor Michael Kidd, it's been reported the billionaire founder of Snapchat, Evan Spiegel, was allowed into Australia without having to do hotel quarantine in New South Wales. Why do these celebrities get, get a different set of rules for the rest of us?

MICHAEL KIDD:

Yeah look, I haven't seen that report, Hamish, so I can't comment on that individual –

HAMISH MCDONALD:

[Interrupts] Well, it’s not the first instance, it seems to be happening quite a bit. Why do these Hollywood stars and billionaires get different treatment?

MICHAEL KIDD:

Well certainly, the national approach is that people are coming into hotel quarantined for 14 days. I know that some exemptions have been granted in individual states and territories - exactly what the rationale is for each exemption, I don't know.

HAMISH MCDONALD:

Alright. And they don't have a less infectious version of the virus; I assume?

MICHAEL KIDD:

Absolutely not.

HAMISH MCDONALD:

Professor Michael Kidd, thank you very much indeed.

MICHAEL KIDD:

Thanks, Hamish.

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