Australians will not receive free rapid antigen tests as national cabinet agreed on Thursday to narrow the definition of a close contact and cut isolation times.
Australians will not receive free rapid antigen tests after the national cabinet agreed to a raft of changes on Thursday afternoon including a narrowing in the definition of a close contact.
Tasmania will adopt the definition on January 1, while West Australian Premier Mark McGowan said it was unlikely he would adopt the new definition before February 5 given the state’s low caseload. Mr Morrison said a person who contracted COVID-19 would need to isolate for seven days from the day they took their test. They had previously needed to isolate for 10 days.
A close contact who is asymptomatic should take a rapid test on days one and six. If the initial rapid test comes back positive, then they should get a PCR test. Mr Morrison said the turnaround time for a PCR test should improve once the new definition of close contact came into force at midnight.The national cabinet agreed that rapid tests will not be handed out to anyone who wants one.
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