The isolation period is expected to be scrapped for most Covid-19 close contacts after national cabinet agreed to overhaul the rules as quickly as possible.
The use of PCR testing in otherwise healthy people with mild respiratory illnesses is also likely to be phased out following Friday’s meeting between stxjmtzywate and territory leaders and Scott Morrison.
National cabinet met to discuss an additional $2.1bn in federal government health funding for Covid-19 and influenza, as well as a plan for both viruses over the coming winter.
Currently, anyone who is deemed a close contact of a confirmed case of coronavirus is required to undergo seven days of isolation.
But national cabinet will ask the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee to provide urgent advice to inform the transition away from mandatory quarantine for every close contact.
It hasn’t yet been made clear which close contacts would still be required to isolate and who would be exempt under the anticipated new rules.
The emergency public health decision makers at the AHPPC will also be asked to endorse the transition away from PCR testing for most people.
Healthy people with mild respiratory illnesses would instead be encouraged to voluntarily self-isolate while they have symptoms.
Australia had recorded some 34,873 new cases of Covid-19 in the 24 hours to Friday afternoon, with 1689 people hospitalised with the virus, according to the data tracker Covid Live.
The Prime Minister and state and territory leaders have agreed to continue going halves on the bill for the pandemic response, at least until September 30.
And they will extend by three months the scheme that allows concession card holders to get up to 10 free rapid antigen tests over a three-month period.
National cabinet will also devise a “nationally consistent plan” to address the Japanese encephalitis outbreak, after the mosquito-borne disease spread across four states.
