WA shearing industry in COVID ‘watch and learn’ phase as east coast orders 3500 rapid antigen tests

The WA shearing industry is bracing itself for the reopening of the border next month, with hopes to secure rapid antigen tests to avoid a “really detrimental” outbreak among the critically short-staffed sector. It comes as Omicron runs rampant over east, rendering businesses inoperable as workers are struck down with the virus and tens of thousands of new cases are recorded daily. It could see WA woolgrowers forking out an extra $250 to get their sheep shorn to cover the at-home tests. The Shearing Contractors’ Association of Australia on Friday afternoon received a shipment of 3500 Rapid Antigen Tests from China to distribute to members trying to secure “as many as they can get,” secretary Jason Letchford said. “The greatest problem is for productivity, given we’re all 4-6 weeks behind in the eastern states shearing, losing one worker to COVID and then three close contacts is really detrimental,” he said. The association is recommending they use prior to “camp-out” jobs, where teams are staying out on farms in close quarters for multiple nights. They are recommending each worker takes one of the tests — which provide results within 15 minutes — before they leave home and again before they start work in the shed, with talks another test should be taken on day three. “You’ve got a duty of care to keep people safe,” Mr Letchford said. “It can become a worker’s compensation issue, because if its reasonably proven your workplace made you sick — you’re up for worker’s compensation. “It is different if they’re travelling to and from work every day and going to the pub at night, because you could catch it there.” Ideally they would be testing daily, but the cost and supply of the tests was a limiting factor, he said. “There’s too much demand,” Mr Letchford said. “We were at the front of the queue and still had to wait a week. “Before Christmas it was $10, but now they cost $14.40 each plus freight. “So if you’ve got 10 workers and five days, it’s $250 a week. So the numbers are going to add up quickly.” Woolgrowers over east are now looking at paying an extra $150-$250 per team to cover the costs, which Mr Letchford said would likely be the case for WA farmers once the borders reopened. He hoped the cost would come back down and they would be easier to access in time, with hand sanitiser and face mask prices seeing similar spikes when the pandemic first hit and supplies were tight. “Eventually when they’re available in Australia, we’re hoping chemists in rural areas will have access to them,” he said. WA Shearing Industry Association president Darren Spencer said he had been in talks with pharmacies and assured they would be able to access the tests for WA shearers to use in future. “If people go away for the weekend, you don’t want them coming back and getting COVID through your shearing team,” he said. “And when you’re out shearing, everyone’s living together and close quarters.” The State is about 120 shearers short, with many contractors running a team less than usual, with international and interstate border restrictions leaving a gaping hole in the workforce and seeing teams run 2-6 weeks behind schedule. While WA has been able to follow what has been happening over east, Mr Spencer said it was difficult to know exactly what the impact would be and how the industry could prepare, aside from vaccinations and RATs. One thing has been made clear — if WA is put into lockdown after the border re-opens, shearers and shed staff will need to be double vaxxed if they want to keep working. “The WA Agriculture Minister has said if we go into lockdown and we want an exemption to shear and keep working, our staff will need to be fully vaccinated,” Mr Spencer said. “Some are apprehensive about it but most contractors are already vaccinated and have told their staff what the rules will be should we go into lockdown.” Mr Letchford said WA had the benefit of being able to see what the other states were doing during the outbreaks, calling it a “watch and learn phase”. However, he said preparing for something of this scale was “very difficult”. He said the number of RATs they had on-hand would only last 1-2 weeks and it would be a matter of monitoring what cases numbers were doing as to when they ordered more and how many would be needed. “It’s happening very quickly and once it happens it’s a few hundred cases, then suddenly it’s a few thousand,” Mr Letchford said. “The curve is exponential and preparing is very difficult.”