New assessments for COVID-19 exposure locations in the ACT take into account evidence from previous transmission sites and recognise the impact quarantine and isolation requirements have on individuals and businesses, Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith has said.
No new exposure locations were publicly notified by ACT Health on Wednesday, a day after new risk assessments were introduced that meant fewer sites would be classified as high risk and force people who attended into isolation.
The monitor for symptoms exposure location definition was reintroduced on Tuesday and sites downgraded to that status included crowded locations where significant transmission of the coronavirus has been identified.
Under the new approach, such sites will have no formal isolation or testing requirements for attendees, in a move that meant some people could leave quarantine early and there would be less pressure on overwhelmed COVID-19 testing clinics.
Ms Stephen-Smith on Wednesday said the changes recognised health authorities were no longer pursuing an aggressive suppression strategy to stamp out the coronavirus in the community.
"Obviously, we're not going to put in place settings where we think they will actually contribute to a rapid escalation of case numbers, because that doesn't make the job any easier; that makes it harder. This is about reassessing the risk and what we've actually seen, the evidence that we've had from different types of sites about the amount of transmission that's occurred at those sites," Ms Stephen-Smith said.
The Health Minister said the changes to test, trace, isolate and quarantine protocols also recognised the inconvenience for people and businesses who were caught at exposure locations and forced into periods of isolation.
"We know that that impact of quarantine and having so many people identified as casual contacts and then having to isolate until they receive their negative test has been really quite significant, not just on those individuals but also the impact on businesses being able to continue to operate," she said.
This is one of the first times the ACT government has publicly indicated its pandemic response settings had been adjusted in consideration of the commercial sector's needs.
ACT Health on Tuesday said the new risk assessments for exposure locations would focus on identifying sites where COVID-19 was at risk of being transmitted into high-risk settings, such as healthcare facilities, and at-risk population groups.
The Basement in Belconnen, which had been identified as a close contact exposure site on the night of Friday, December 17, was reclassified as a monitor-for-symptoms site on Tuesday, despite extensive virus transmission.
Following the reclassification of exposure sites, the most recent close contact location is listed as a gym on December 16.
Every exposure location identified in the ACT after December 20 is now listed as a monitor for symptoms site.
ACT Health says monitor exposure locations "have a lower risk of onward transmission" to people present.
