Kathy Gandolfi
“I LOST two days out of my life,” said motor neurone disease (MND) sufferer David Quill after he was forced to quarantine due to the State Government’s Covid-19 border crossing requirements just prior to them being eased this week.
A resident of Yahl, Mr Quill, 73, had been to Geelong to undergo medical tests related to his MND and on return to South Australia had to quarantine in his own home until he could be tested for Covid-19 after the wheelchair assisted patient was unable to get tested in a timely or wheelchair mindful manner at the Mount Gambier showgrounds testing site last Friday.
“It would appear that now we have finally reached a perfectly logical solution,” said Mr Quill in response to an announcement from Premier Steven Marshall on Tuesday that people arriving into South Australia from New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory or Victoria are no longer required to have a Covid-19 test after crossing the border unless they have symptoms of Covid-19.
Under the newly eased requirements, people arriving from interstate only need a negative Covid-19 test result in the 72 hours prior to their arrival in South Australia.
This is in contrast to the previous situation which required both the pre-arrival test and another test upon arrival into South Australia and to quarantine until a negative test result was received, and then another test on the sixth day after arrival.
These requirements led to long queues at the Mount Gambier showgrounds testing site with reports of people waiting for up to five hours in the line-up.
Mr Quill said they were 50th in the line-up when they arrived at the showgrounds testing station at 3pm on Friday and they weren’t going to be tested before the site closed at 4.30pm.
He was told that he could not be tested outside of a vehicle and in light of this would need to hire a maxi-cab taxi for his wheelchair which he was not prepared to do in light of the potential large cost of hiring the vehicle with the meter running while they were waiting in a line up for hours.
“Lil went by herself to be tested the next day, arriving at 8am and it took her three and a half hours before she could get tested,” said Mr Quill.
“Then the process started, asking for me to be tested at home,” he said with 24 hours of faxing, emailing and long phone calls, including enlisting the help of friends and others, finally resulting in a SA Pathology nurse visiting the Quill home on Monday evening to undertake the Covid-19 test on Mr Quill.
“I don’t imagine for one second that I am the only one with a disability who had the same problems,” Mr Quill said, appreciative of the home testing visit, but disappointed at the stress that the requirements had caused.
“If it wasn’t for the help of Lil and friends, I couldn’t have done this,” said Mr Quill.
One of those friends was local retired anesthetist, Dr Paul Goodman.
“It has been a shambles,” said Dr Goodman.
“I think the Federal Government should take over from the State on this [Covid-19 controls].
“If we have a war they don’t let the states do it, and we are in effect fighting a war – a biological war,” he said.
Dr Goodman welcomed news of eased testing requirements for travellers crossing the border which will give him the confidence to travel to see his son in Victoria for the first time in 18 months.
