The staggering number of COVID-19 cases a doctor estimates there really are in Victoria

A Mornington Peninsula doctor, who has been testing Victorians for COVID-19 for months, estimates the true number of infections of the virus in the state is far greater than official figures suggest.

There were 69,680 active cases of the virus yesterday according to the Health Department’s figures, but with positive rapid antigen tests (RATs) now considered confirmation of probable infection, and the reporting system to inform the government about those cases only launched today, many cases are likely missing from that figure.

Dr Sally Shaw, who oversees COVID-19 testing at the Rosebud Respiratory Clinic, estimates there are “a million positives out there, which means one-in-six people has got it”.

“I’m doing 1000 a day here and more than half are positive,” she told Tony Jones, filling in for Neil Mitchell.

The Rosebud Respiratory Clinic has been providing RATs to everyone receiving a PCR in the past three months.

Dr Shaw says they’re fairly accurate if they’re used correctly.

“We’ve been doing rapid tests here for the last three months, with every PCR we do a rapid test, so we’ve done 50,000 … what we’ve found is about 15 out of 1000 are false positives and about 15 out of 1000 are false negatives,” she said.

“This is the most important thing: It must be read at 15 minutes, because if it’s read at 20 minutes it will not be accurate.”

Press PLAY below to hear Dr Shaw’s tips on how to get an accurate RAT result