Melbourne: The Premier of the Western Australia state Mark McGowan alleged Tuesday that COVID-19 tests conducted in India for returning travellers were either inaccurate or unreliable. He said that the reports of the tests are impinging on the integrity of the system and causing some issues here. Mark McGowan’s remarks came after authorities in Western Australia said that four people in hotel quarantine in Perth tested positive for coronavirus following their return from India.
“I have just been advised at this (Tuesday) morning’s emergency management team meeting that 78 of the 79 passengers on this flight had been in India recently. Our expectation is the number of positive cases from this group of people will grow and potentially grow significantly,” McGowan was quoted as saying by a local TV channel.
“We obviously have a problem with India. Some of the tests conducted in India either aren’t accurate or aren’t believable. Clearly that’s causing some issues here,” McGowan added. He pinpointed that the large numbers of people arriving in Australia from India with the virus showed the system was failing. He questioned if all of the test results being produced by people before boarding flights were accurate.
“’If there are tests that are inaccurate or a bit dodgy being produced so that people get on flights, that is impinging the integrity of the system and that is why we are suffering these problems,” McGowan asserted.
McGown also urged people to not to travel to India unless there was an extreme emergency. His appeal came just before Australia banned entry of travellers from India till May 15.
“In the middle of a pandemic that is killing hundreds of thousands of people across India, there is no need to go to India for anything but the most extreme of reasons now. I can’t think of many (reasons to be allowed to travel),” McGowan asserted.
Meanwhile, Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews said Tuesday the situation in India was absolutely devastating.
“Hundreds of thousands of new cases each day, multiple deaths. I mean, it’s just an awful situation…,” she said. Andrews confirmed that the government was also looking at issues such as the humanitarian support that Australia can provide to India.
