NSW Covid Updates: State records 1281 new cases, five deaths

A major change to the way Australians do Covid tests will be made within "weeks", as NSW recorded 1281 new Covid cases and five  deaths. Read our Covid blog.

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Australians will soon be able to test themselves for Covid-19 from the comfort of their own homes.

The massive shake-up to the country’s testing regime was confirmed by federal health minister Greg Hunt on Monday. The government has approved 28 types of rapid-antigen tests, with the final decision now with the Therapeutic Goods Association (TGA).

Mr Hunt said up until now there hadn’t been enough support for the change from some of the state’s chief health officers.

Nurses at the Covid-19 drive through testing site at Killara. Picture: NCA NewsWire/ Gaye Gerard

“But right now I think we’ve got that momentum,” he told talkback radio host Ray Hadley on Monday. “They’re being used in workplaces, in aged care and elsewhere and the next frontier is to move for approval on the home front.”

Mr Hunt said the rapid home testing kits could be approved “within the coming months, if not weeks”.

However, he wouldn’t be drawn on whether they would be definitely be available by the time freedoms became available for fully vaccinated people living in locked down states.

“I’ll never pre-empt their (the TGA’s) approvals,” he said. “As we move into the next phases, I am very, very confident that these will be available for Australians.”

It comes as five more people died from Covid in NSW and the state recorded 1281 new cases.

The latest deaths include a man in his 90s who was fully vaccinated, two women in their 80s, a man in his 60s and a woman in her 50s.

Read Monday's blog.

Originally published as NSW Covid Updates: State records 1281 new cases, five deaths