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Tasmanians are encouraged to keep informed about trends in acute respiratory infections (ARI) circulating in the community, with new reporting changes to come into effect this Friday, 12 April 2024.
Updates to the Department of Health website ahead of winter will enable Tasmanians to access the current activity and trends of acute respiratory infections in Tasmania, including COVID-19, influenza, and Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV). Tasmanians can use this information to inform what they can do to keep themselves and others well.
Improvements coming into effect from Friday include:
- Weekly publication of a new surveillance report called ‘RespTas’, which presents detailed information about levels and trends of acute respiratory illness and respiratory virus infections currently occurring in Tasmania.
- Weekly publication of ‘Acute Respiratory Infection Activity in Tasmania’. This will include a summary of the current level of activity and trends of acute respiratory illness, COVID-19, Influenza, and Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) in Tasmania. This will replace the existing ‘Weekly Statistics’ COVID-19 webpage and presentation of COVID-19 risk levels.
Public Health Services will continue to monitor, analyse and report on acute respiratory infection in Tasmania using a range of data, including from community, laboratories and other sources.
As part of the changes to surveillance practices, registration of COVID-19 Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) results with Public Health is no longer needed. However, people who test positive on a RAT test will still be able to find information about their diagnosis on the Department of Health website. This information includes how to access care from an appropriate provider and support from Care@home.
To boost participation in an important part of surveillance for respiratory illness in the community, Tasmanians are urged to enrol in FluTracking. FluTracking is a very short weekly online survey, sent by email, which asks participants whether they’ve had any symptoms of an influenza-like-illness. Sign up to flu tracking.
Regardless of the level of respiratory illness activity in the community or which viruses are circulating, it is important to continue practicing simple behaviours to keep yourself and others safe.
Simple behaviours we can all do include:
- Be up to date with your COVID-19 (including boosters) and annual flu vaccinations. Tasmanians aged 60 years and over should talk with their health care provider about RSV vaccines.
- Stay home if you have any cold or flu-like symptoms and stay home until your symptoms have settled.
- If you have cold or flu-like symptoms or test positive to any respiratory virus, do not visit high risk settings or people at higher risk from respiratory infections for at least seven days.
- Cover coughs and sneezes and keep your hands clean by washing with soap and water, or by using alcohol-based hand sanitiser.
Those at higher risk of severe illness should make a plan for access to testing and antiviral treatment with your GP or healthcare provider before they get sick.
It is still important for Tasmanians at higher risk to get tested if they have symptoms and seek early treatment if positive. Care@home is still available for those who need support by calling 1800 973 363.