TENS of millions more rapid antigen tests (RAT) will soon arrive in Victoria, but it’s unclear when they will find their way to the Mallee.
The Victorian Government has ordered 166 million more tests, building on its initial order of 44 million.
It comes as more than 4.5 million extra tests landed in Victoria already this week, in addition to the three million tests which arrived on Sunday.
“The distribution of free RATs is helping to reduce the pressure on the PCR testing system, where turnaround times are improving – with more than 80 per cent of PCR tests now being returned to Victorians within 24 hours of getting tested,” the government said.
“In total, more than 2.2 million RATs will have been distributed to health workers, staff in sensitive settings and vulnerable communities by the end of the week.
“Victoria’s health services have been prioritised in the delivery of RATs, so staff at hospitals and GP respiratory clinics can continue to work safely.
“More than 50 community organisations have received RATs so far – including in priority settings such as community health sites, disability support services, Aboriginal community organisations, family support centres, mental health services and regional centres.”
Premier Daniel Andrews said it was important the government kept adding to the stockpile.
“They are going to be relevant, they are going to be particularly important in the weeks and months to come,” he said.
“We have already distributed a lot, more than 2.2 million rapid tests to help workers, staff in sensitive settings and also vulnerable communities.”
Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Wednesday said he understood understand that rapid antigen test shortages had been a “great frustration”.
“We have been able to secure supplies of rapid antigen tests for the things the Commonwealth was responsible for providing them for in aged care,” he said.
“But even that has been strained now because of Omicron and Omicron means we’ve had more outbreaks than we would have otherwise expected under Delta.”
Asked if he accepted any responsibility for the Federal Government to fix the shortage that people were seeing at their local pharmacy, Mr Morrison said Australia didn’t have the spiralling numbers of cases like other countries were experiencing, which had led them to go to the lesser option of rapid antigen tests.
“The advice was we could stay with the PCR tests and that those PCR tests were able to be done in the earlier waves of the virus,” he said.
“So rapid antigen tests were not being widely used in Australia for pretty much all of the pandemic up until we hit December, and Omicron arrived.
“So in the private sector, they hadn’t been stocking their shelves and orders in the same way that would have been occurring in other countries where it was more of a common use tool.
“Because in Australia, the medical advice was it wasn’t as effective as a tool which could provide misleading results compared to PCRs.
“And the medical advice was to prefer the PCRs. So that explains why the private market wouldn’t have been doing the forward orders that they might otherwise have been doing.
“They had no more a crystal ball about Omicron than anyone else did, and but there were already supplies in other countries because they were already using them.”
Meanwhile, the Novavax vaccine has finally been approved for use in Australia, with hundreds of thousands of unvaccinated people expected to get the new jab.
The protein-based vaccine received the green light from the Therapeutic Goods Administration on Thursday morning.
Australia has 51 million Novavax doses on order, with supplies expected to enter the country in coming weeks.
The approval will initially enable Novavax to be administered to people who are unvaccinated, with further work needed to determine if it can also be used as a booster shot.
