Australia’s Pharmacy Guild has set up an online site with information on where people could find RATs, or rapid antigen test kits.
The organization seeks to eliminate price gouging on the said kits and will set up a website where people could find rapid antigen tests in stores across the region. The ACCC, or Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has been receiving reports on self-administer kits and how the prices were going for $70.
Greg Hunt, federal Health Minister, mentioned that aged care facilities will receive 5.6 million RATs, and there would be 70 million more ‘over the following weeks and months’. It’s said that the result of a late consensus view of the rapid antigen tests was a ‘market failure’ as demand was far greater than the supply.
Smaller pharmacies are refusing to purchase the antigen tests as it was priced too high. Hunt mentions that Omicron shows signs of plateauing but it’s too early to determine its peak.