surveillance testing

As Melbourne emerges from lockdown, there are new measures in place to prevent another outbreak of the coronavirus.  It is agreed that mass testing is very important in identifying any community transfer of the disease. One way of ensuring that testing is carried out is to require employers to test twenty-five per cent of their workforce each week so that, over the period of a month, the entire staff is tested.  This is described as surveillance testing.  At the moment this regulation is limited to such workplaces as meatworks, abattoirs, food processing centres and supermarket distribution centres, but there are those who argue that it should be extended to other work situations where the coronavirus has been noticeably present.