Coronavirus, Health Advice

The Hon. T.T. NGO (15:04): Supplementary question: could the minister tell the house, the information being gathered, what department will deal with it, in terms of: are they going to react now or are they going to wait until the, potentially, second outbreak and then they will act on it? Could the minister tell the house?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (15:04): I can assure you they are acting now. I have not actually seen the finalised—what is today, the 23^rd? It happened seven days ago. In some of the early feedback that I heard at the forum and that I have heard since, in many ways it was not so much the knowledge gaps. Many of the multicultural communities clearly understood issues like social distancing and what have you, but one of the issues that was highlighted was misunderstandings.

For example, many members of the culturally and linguistically diverse communities in South Australia are not Australian citizens, they are not Australian permanent residents, and therefore they are not entitled, as I understand it, to Medicare. There was a misunderstanding that because they were not entitled to hospital services, if they went to a COVID clinic they would be charged, that they would have a financial penalty for doing so.

We have consistently tried to get the message out that there will be no charge. Anybody who presents for a COVID test will have it free of charge—no questions asked—if they meet the eligibility criteria. That is clearly an area where we have not been as successful as we would want to be in terms of getting the message out. At SA Health, because of the diversity of issues that are raised they will all be forwarded through in terms of the relevant teams, but that might be one message that I suspect would be particularly relevant to international students. I think they are required to have private health insurance, but we do not want anybody to hold back from getting tested for COVID-19 because of any financial impediments.

To reiterate yet again, we are all in this together. Supporting vulnerable people to stay healthy and get tested is not just in their interests and those of their family and community, it is in the interests of the whole state and of the nation.