NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet has today acknowledged there is a consumer shortage of rapid antigen tests, or RATs, across the state as it records 6,062 cases of COVID-19.
He announced the federal government had ordered 20 million rapid tests to cope with massive demand and ease the pressure on PCR testing sites.
“We’ve put an order in for 20 million rapid tests and my understanding is they will be available by the end of January,” he said.
Rapid tests have been selling out nationwide as outbreaks grow in almost every state. There has been an acute shortage in regional areas amid rising demand, with reports of price gouging by retailers.
But Pharmacy Guild Australia president Trent Twomey told the ABC that state and federal governments did in fact stockpile a bunch of RATs last month, but they haven’t been accessible because they’re in bulk packs suitable only for use at airports or hospitals.
These bulk packs don’t meet Therapeutic Goods Administration requirements for retail packaging, so no one’s actually been able to use them.
“We’re in this funny situation where our stockpiles have a lot of stock, both at a state and a national level, but we aren’t able to draw down on those in pharmacies or supermarkets to sell to consumers,” Twomey said.
On Monday, the Queensland government secured an additional 500,000 rapid tests in an emergency overseas order.
“The reason we’ve been able to get those emergency half-a-million is because we are able to work with a particular supplier in Melbourne, who are unpacking bulk packs and repackaging them into retail packs that we can get freighted up,” Twomey said.
But he said these tests will likely be more expensive that what we’re used to.
The plane carrying them was chartered from the US, and the people repackaging them in Melbourne had to work through Christmas, therefore getting paid holiday rates.
“The [tests are] not going to be at the same price,” he said.
Twomey said that pharmacists across Queensland’s tourist hotspots were very short on rapid tests and supply would be “very, very patchy” until more arrived from overseas next month.
Lines at PCR testing sites have also blown out over Christmas as people get pinged as contacts, try to travel interstate to see family, or want an assurance they won’t infect their relatives over the holidays.
Perrottet has urged residents to only get a PCR test if necessary.
”Only get a PCR test if you’re required to do so, if you’re feeling unwell, or if NSW Health has contacted you, or you’re required to for interstate travel.”
Perrottet said the long testing lines are mostly made up by tourism tests.
“The number-one thing is tests for asymptomatic people who are not feeling unwell and simply wanting to travel should be removed,” he said.
QLD Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk today announced travellers entering the state would no longer be required to take a PCR test on day five of their trip, after NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said the rule was adding to testing site overload.
Interstate travellers will still to have a test within 72 hours of their arrival into QLD.
Rapid tests will remain recommended screening tools for asymptomatic people, as they are less accurate than PCRs.
Perrottet said rapid tests should only be used when going into high-risk settings.
“Going to hospitals, visiting elderly residents, going clubbing these are the types of environments as we move through 2022 and we start shifting our focus again as we live alongside the virus,” he said.
There are currently 557 people in a NSW hospital with COVID, 60 are in intensive care.
