ACT COVID-19 update 28 April 2022

* Notes on rapid antigen tests (RATs):

• Positive RAT results for COVID-19 were collected by ACT Health from 8 January 2022, through the introduction of a new online RAT declaration form that members of the public were asked to complete if they tested positive on a RAT. All RAT declarations, including forms with limited demographic information, were included in ACT Health’s daily COVID-19 case counts from 8 January 2022.
• Due to routine data cleaning work conducted by ACT Health in April 2022, 846 incomplete RAT declaration forms were identified and removed from the cumulative ACT COVID-19 cases total. These incomplete forms contained limited demographic information and/or the legal declaration had not been completed. Records with insufficient demographic information (for example, name, date of birth, phone number) were removed because ACT Health could not use these records to uniquely identify an individual. With this limited information, we were unable to determine if the person had already completed a RAT declaration, contact the person for case processing and we could not apply our standard business rules for case processing (for example, if the person sought a confirmatory PCR test).
• In addition, records were removed because these individuals did not complete the legal declaration section in the RAT form. There are 3 components to the legal declaration: (1) stating that the person has tested positive to COVID-19 in a RAT test or interstate PCR test, (2) acknowledge that the information collected by ACT Health may be shared with other government agencies, and (3) declare that the information provided is correct to the best of the person’s knowledge.