One group left behind as cases surge

Multicultural Minister Mark Coure confessed it was “absolutely right” to say the changes could be lost on some communities.

Mr Coure conceded the NSW government had some way to go to make sure people whose first language was not English stayed informed.

One big rule change that’s been flagged is a requirement to self-report positive Covid-19 infections discovered through rapid antigen testing at home.

NSW is set to start tallying positive RATs from Wednesday, with people told to log their results through Service NSW.

The government has sought legal advice on making the reporting mandatory.

“There are multicultural communities out there that won’t understand the new changes,” Mr Coure told reporters.

“My job as minister is to ensure that they do and that material will be out soon.”

He said Digital Minister Victor Dominello was overseeing Service NSW‘s work to update the app to allow people to report RAT results.

NSW Health is working with Multicultural NSW and other government bodies to ensure information is made available in other languages than English.

“My job as Minister for Multiculturalism is to ensure that that material is translated,” Mr Coure said.

Opposition Leader Chris Minns said the government should have “immediately” made sure people could report their positive RAT tests.

“The state of NSW and our senior health bureaucrats are flying blind because they don’t have the true picture of the Omicron variant and its transmission in the community,” he told reporters.

The requirement to report positive RAT results comes as residents increasingly shift to the home tests over PCR tests done by professionals.

There were 71,325 PCR tests processed in the latest reporting period, a drop on the volume seen in recent weeks.

Originally published as One group at risk of being left behind as Covid cases surge in NSW