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.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced on Thursday that a close contact would only be a household contact or household-like contact of a confirmed COVID-19 case. A household contact was someone who had spent more than four hours with an infected person in a house or accommodation setting, he said.
The new definition of a close contact will come into effect at midnight in NSW, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and the ACT.
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.
South Australia’s Premier, Steven Marshall, said states could alter the definition of close contact in certain circumstances.
“So, for example, we might, if you like, flex up the definition of close contacts in a residential aged-care facility because we know people there are far more vulnerable,” he said.
“Or if we know there have been a multiple or a larger number of new cases or community transmission within an individual workplace, then we might have a larger definition of close contacts there.”
The national cabinet also agreed on consistent isolation requirements for infected people and their close contacts.
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 person with the virus would need to take a rapid antigen test on day six. They could exit isolation on day seven if the test came back negative.
Close contacts, regardless of whether they are symptomatic, will need to isolate for seven days from the day they were exposed to a person with the virus.
The main difference is the type of test they should take. A close contact who is symptomatic should get a PCR test and then take a rapid test on day six.
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.
The Prime Minister said people who did not fit the new definition of a close contact should go home if they were currently in line for a PCR test.
“Go to the beach, go and do what you want to do. Read a book in the park,” he said. “The people we need in that line are people who need 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.
Mr Morrison said anyone who would “just like to get a test” needed to buy one and that was “what the private market is for”. Supermarkets and pharmacies would not supply enough rapid tests if there was a chance that governments were to “all of a sudden … go around and start providing these free to anybody and everybody”.
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