Coronavirus Australia: PM announces national rapid antigen tests stockpile

Scott Morrison has also procured $375 million in additional funds to procure further RATs to be part of the national stockpile.

Scott Morrison holds a press conference at Kirribilli House in Sydney. Picture: NewsWire / Dylan Robinson

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced that Australia will ”very soon” have a national stockpile of 10 million rapid antigen tests, the cost of which will be shared equally between federal and state and territory governments.

Mr Morrison said on Wednesday the federal government had ordered six million RAT tests, in addition to the four million which had already been delivered.

“There are another six million arriving very soon. And we have also approved, the Treasurer and I, and the finance minister, $375 million in additional funds to procure further RATs to be part of the national stockpile” Mr Morrison told reporters.

“It’s to deal with the Commonwealth’s responsibilities for directly providing these tests. States have the responsibility of providing the tests in their settings.”

Mr Morrison said only close contacts and people with symptoms should undertake a rapid antigen test.

“What’s not necessary is for people to go out and bulk purchase RAT tests and having them every other day on a casual basis,” he said.

Mr Morrison said the commonwealth would share half the cost of RATs with states and territories. He said the commonwealth had ordered another six million RATs that would arrive “very soon.”

Mr Morrison also said Australia would move to a single definition of what classifies a Covid-19 close contact amid a rising number of Omicron cases.

The Prime Minister said national cabinet, which will meet on Thursday, will discuss a new definition of a close contact on Thursday to ensure Australia could “keep moving” and people could “get on with their lives”.

“It is important that we continue to adjust and get as consistent an approach as we possibly can across all the states and territories,” he said.

The Andrews government announced this morning it had bought 34 million rapid tests, which will be made “freely available, and widely available” to Victorians within days.

Health Minister Martin Foley said the widespread use of free rapid antigen testing under the state-sponsored program would help protect the “gold standard” PCR testing in Victoria.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk also announced incoming travellers could provide a negative RAT test rather than a PCR test. Ms Palaszczuk announced the scrapping of the controversial border requirement which had come under intense criticism for blowing out testing wait times across the country.

From Saturday January 1, travellers from interstate hotspots will no longer need to produce a negative PCR test to gain entry into Queensland.

Travellers can use a Rapid Antigen Test to satisfy border pass requirements.

This will come into effect from midnight January 1. pic.twitter.com/EgiMhlS0cw

— Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) December 29, 2021

In announcing the Victoria program on Wednesday, Mr Foley said state governments were “stepping up” to “fill the gap” he claimed was left by the Morrison government for rapid testing.

Victoria recorded 3767 new coronavirus infections on Wednesday from more than 75,000 PCR tests, bringing the state’s active cases of Covid-19 to 19,994. There are 397 people in Victorian hospitals, and 106 of those are being treated in intensive care units.

Mr Foley said details of how the free 34 million rapid tests, which currently sell for $15 each, would be distributed throughout the state would be announced within days.

“We want to make sure they are widely and most effectively available to the people who need them most,” he said.

“Rapid antigen tests should be free, and we will be making them free. Rapid antigen tests should be widely available, and we will be making them widely available,” Mr Foley said.

Mr Foley used the announcement of the government’s purchase of the rapid tests to launch a scathing attack on the Morrison government.

“That will be part of a process that has fallen to the states. We would much prefer to have a national approach … but failing that, as per usual, the states have had to step up and fill the gap that has been left,” he said.

“If I had to commentate endlessly on the areas in which the commonwealth hasn’t stood up to deliver national leadership, so many areas during the course of this pandemic, I would be sounding like a broken record.

“Go back to March 2020, where there was a promise of a national stockpile of PPE, that never eventuated, and everything since. The states have got to rely on each other.”

Mr Foley declined to say how much Victoria paid for the 34 million kits, and expressed disappointment that the federal government hadn’t used its purchasing power to secure the tests. “Sub-national governments just don’t bring the same kind of buying power grunt that national governments do,” he said.

Mr Foley said Victoria had introduced a 10-day isolation policy to replace the 14-day rule for most positive cases and supported this being adopted across the nation. He said he expected this to be a key agenda item at national cabinet on Thursday.