Coronavirus

The Hon. F. PANGALLO (15:20): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Health and Wellbeing a question regarding COVID-19 testing.

Leave granted.

The Hon. F. PANGALLO: A constituent who attended the Lyell McEwin Hospital contacted me last week concerned about open gaps at the COVID-19 testing area that has been set up. A flimsy wall was erected to separate the unit from the general part of the hospital; however, there is no screening in the gap between the top of the wall and a wooden frame extending across it connecting it to the ceiling. My questions to the minister are:

1. Why does the gap exist when there is concern from patients and others outside the unit that if someone did present with COVID-19 the virus could become airborne and travel through the gaps? Does the minister have some kind of advice that the COVID-19 virus may be distance-challenged and unable to travel beyond certain heights?

2. Is SA Health undertaking follow-up studies on all patients being treated in our hospitals for COVID-19 to record whether they are suffering from any lingering after-effects of COVID-19 or whether it has returned?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (15:21): I thank the honourable member for his questions. There were two questions and I will deal with the first question first. It raises two issues; first, whether the Lyell McEwin Hospital is following appropriate infection control procedures in terms of the COVID-19 clinic. I am confident that they will be, but I will certainly seek an explanation from the hospital to check that.

Secondly, in terms of community concern, it may well be that even if it is not an infection control issue it may provide reassurance to people to have a different form of screening. I will certainly raise those issues with the Lyell McEwin.

I must admit I don't think I have visited the COVID-19 clinic at the Lyell McEwin Hospital itself, but I have been in the Lyell McEwin Hospital—last week, I think—and I certainly had no concerns about infection control. I was greeted by the concierge and asked relevant questions, and appropriate public health measures were taken. Some people might think it was encouraging that even the minister has to comply with public health regulations, but I think it was more the fact that they probably didn't know who I was.

Be that as it may, in relation to the second question the honourable member raises a very good point. Even in the relatively early stages of the pandemic there was concern about what I call the lingering effects of COVID-19. My recollection is that they might have been about cardiac, in particular, but there was a quite specific after-effect beginning to be identified. What is emerging now is that a significant number of people who have had COVID-19 seem to develop something that resembles a chronic condition.

In terms of the SA Health response to COVID-19, I have been involved in discussions with both the public health team and broader members of the team about keeping track of this cohort of patients. Thankfully, it is a manageable number; thankfully, we have had only 444 confirmed cases in South Australia.

Tragically, of those, four have died, and a number of those were overseas acquired. For example, our most recent case was never active in South Australia. Both the PCR testing and the serology suggest that the person had the disease when they were overseas, and so therefore we don't have, if you like, a large cohort.

Nonetheless, SA Health does have on its radar to be alert to the needs beyond, and considering that we now have so many cases around the world, there is so much work being done in, to be frank, so many different domains, I think we will have a very strong body of evidence that emerges as to the after-effects of COVID-19.

I think it might have been the Victorian Premier I heard discussing this issue, and he was highlighting it in particular to warn young people not to take this disease lightly. It may well be that you might be young enough and fit enough to overcome COVID-19, and that is the case for a lot of younger people who contract the disease, but we do not know what we don't know.

Young people need to appreciate that they need to protect not only themselves but their families, their communities and their states from this condition because we just don't know what the impact could be. One of the really disturbing elements of the second wave in Victoria is that it is affecting younger people than the first wave did.

One of the other concerns is that it is becoming positive with less obvious symptoms. My understanding—and I think I picked this up from the media so please don't regard this as a public health alert—was that with one of the cases in New South Wales, the only symptom that the person had was a headache.

Very few people would go to get tested for COVID-19 because they had a headache so we need to be alert to the evolving nature of this disease in terms of its onset and the spread of the disease, but we also need to be alert to what we don't know, and we don't know the long-term effects. It is really important that we take every measure to avoid contracting the disease and from spreading it.