A six-year-old girl in the state's North-West has been retested for COVID-19 because an error saw her original test swab and its paperwork separated.
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Public Health requested the girl, who has not been named for privacy reasons, be retested on Monday.
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The girl's mother said she followed up on her daughter's test results through the Public Health Hotline on Sunday, 10 days after she was first tested.
The girl was referred for COVID-19 testing after being diagnosed with tonsillitis because she had a sore throat, her mother said.
"We had heard of some people waiting for a while to get their results back so we weren't that concerned, especially since she wasn't going anywhere at that stage," her mother said.
She was first told by hotline staff her daughter's results were not in yet.
"It was only when I called back later that we eventually discovered her swab and paperwork had been separated," she said.
"They were apologetic, but said Public Health wanted her to be tested again while they said our older children were clear to go back to school .
"It's incredibly upsetting as a parent to have to physically restrain your six-year-old while an invasive medical procedure is forced upon them - a procedure that was only being administered to make up for a mistake rather than any actual concern that she might be positive for the virus."
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A Tasmanian Health Service spokesman confirmed an issue with the paperwork associated with the testing resulted in a retest being organised for the girl in discussion with her parents, who were advised to keep their child home until the results were received.
"The issue did not relate to the notification of results and in the vast majority of cases people tested at a state government testing clinic will be informed of their results within 48 hours," the spokesman said.
"Tasmania has sufficient testing capacity, and any Tasmanian who has cold or flu-like symptoms such as a cough, sore throat, runny nose, or fever should contact their GP or call the Public Health Hotline on 1800 671 738 to arrange testing for coronavirus."
Health Minister Sarah Courtney said she had been informed that out of the more than 24,600 tests conducted in Tasmania such errors were rare.
"I sincerely apologise to the family for any undue stress caused by this error," Ms Courtney said.
"I would expect that the family will receive the test results within a day or two of that test being carried out."
Labor health spokeswoman Sarah Lovell said this seemed to be an unfortunate error.
"While we have heard of isolated incidents similar to this, on the whole, the process has been working well with results coming in between 24 to 48 hours," Ms Lovell said.
"If anyone is concerned about their sample or test results not being processed as normal, I would urge them to follow up with the service provider, be that Public Health or another provider."
- The girl's father is an employee of Australian Community Media, the publisher of this newspaper.
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