Australian Prime Minister Scott from Marketing is continuing to resist pressure to make free rapid antigen tests for COVID-19 widely available, as state testing regimes buckle and rapid tests remain scarce.
Earlier this week Scotty said the federal government would not be supplying free RAT kits, even as the country shifts from PCR testing to a mixed approach.
Instead, the federal government has agreed to fund half the costs of rapid tests which have been purchased by the states to be handed out for free to people identified as close contacts.
IF people are told to isolate following a positive test - they should be made freely available. Anything else doesn’t follow the ethos of “doing the right thing” or anything other than continuing to circulation with or without the virus.
According to the news this evening there are a couple of companies making Rapid Antigen Tests in Queensland but they are exported to the USA and UK because they haven’t been approved by our TGA for use in Australia.
