Thousands Of RATs Arriving This Week

For the past six weeks, local residents have been scrambling to find Rapid Antigen Tests (RATs) with calls and visits to medical outlets proving unfruitful due to testing kits being in scarce supply.

Pharmacist Alan Milostic from Live Life Pharmacy said that, between the five local pharmacies, they have in excess of 2000 people on the waiting list, having written down their expressions of interest several weeks ago.

Until now, only 3-400 tests have been available per week throughout the Whitsundays, but the gates have finally opened, and Mr Milostic says he is expecting thousands to arrive each week from now on, which will be a game-changer for the community.

“There are thousands of tests arriving,” he said.

“People will be able to do tests whenever they need to and, if they test positive, they will be able to moderate their behaviour accordingly.”

Live Life Pharmacies in Queensland alone have invested $2.5 million in RATs between their 40 pharmacies.

The RATs will be free for any concession card holder or individual with a Department of Veteran Affairs card.

Each person is eligible to claim five tests per month or 10 within a three-month period.

Everyone else will have to pay $15 per test.

“It would have been nice to see a government subsidy for the rest of us,” said Mr Milostic.

“If they expect us to test often, I think there should be a subsidy. Right now, businesses and workers are wearing the costs and I don’t think it’s fair.”

Mr Milostic hopes that our ability to test ourselves more freely will lead to further changes in restrictions.

“I’d like to see us move into the next phase where we modify behaviour rather than go into isolation when we test positive,” he said.

“The current restrictions are counter-productive.”

When to test:

•When you have any symptoms

•When you are visiting someone vulnerable

•If necessary for going back to work

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