Mandatory covid isolation periods scrapped

In two weeks isolation will be rolled back nationwide, while a restriction on telephone consults takes effect tomorrow.

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Against AMA advice, National Cabinet has decided to remove the mandatory five-day isolation rules for people with covid-19, effective 14 October. 

Isolation payments of up to $540 remain for aged care, disability care, Aboriginal healthcare and hospital workers.  

It is unclear whether isolation requirements for these groups will remain along with the payments, or whether the payments are merely encouragement.  

“To protect the most vulnerable and those in high-risk settings, the National Cabinet agreed to continue targeted financial support for casual workers, on the same basis as the Pandemic Leave Disaster Payment, for workers in aged care, disability care, aboriginal healthcare and hospital care sectors,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said. 

The decision was foreshadowed by NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet earlier this morning, with the politician arguing that there is no mandatory isolation for the flu.  

AMA president Professor Steve Robson flatly dismissed the idea that the two diseases were comparable.  

“If you think the flu is like covid, you’re living in fantasyland,” he said on ABC’s News Breakfast.  

“Covid is a long-term infection, we’re already seeing a massive effect of long covid on the workforce and the community.  

“You don’t have ‘long flu’ or ‘long cold’.” 

Professor Robson also said that the people pushing for isolation periods to be cut were “not scientifically literate” and were putting the public at risk. 

He also pointed out the current upswing in covid cases overseas coming into holiday season. 

“We think it’s a period of significant risk and we’re urging caution because we need to protect the health system and we need to protect vulnerable people like those in aged care and people with a disability,” Professor Robson said.  

Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly said that Australia was in a low community-transmission phase.  

“We will almost certainly see future peaks of the virus into the future, as we have seen earlier this year,” he said. 

“However, at the moment, we have very low rates of cases, hospitalisations, intensive care admissions, aged-care outbreaks and various other measures that we have been following very closely in our weekly open report.” 

Professor Kelly said that the new rules should not “in any way suggest that the pandemic is finished”, but the fact remains that ditching the mandatory isolation period and leave payments will be seen by many as the shedding of the last vestiges of the pandemic.  

Perhaps as a sign that the government is returning to business-as-usual, the regulatory environment is also set to change in the coming weeks.  

From tomorrow, the 30/20 telehealth rule will apply to GPs.  

The rule will see any GP who provides more than 30 daily phone consultations on 20 or more days over a 12-month period referred to the Professional Services Review. 

Both the RACGP and the AMA have asked for a further stay of the rule. 

“This pandemic is not over and now is not the time to tie our hands behind our backs and restrict phone consults,” said RACGP president Adjunct Professor Karen Price.