Rapid Covid tests to hit shelves at Coles, Woolworths from next week
Shoppers will be able to pick up their own rapid Covid testing kits during their grocery shop from next week, as the technology finally becomes available to Australian consumers.
Supermarket giants Woolworths and Coles have confirmed they will be stocking the kits after regulators paved the way for their commercial approval.
From Monday November 1, Australians will be able to self-test for Covid at home, using one of eight TGA approved rapid testing kits.
Coles will be stocking a Chinese-made testing kit at some 700 stores across the country as early as next week.
"Rapid Antigen Test kits will be available for sale at Coles supermarkets and via Coles Online in Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, Northern Territory, the ACT, and Tasmania from next week," a spokesperson told Yahoo News Australia.
The Hough Pharma nasal tests will come in packs of two and five.
Woolworths is also selling Antigen testing kits in selected stores, with customers already able to pre-order them.
Woolworths has already been using the testing kits on their distribution centre workers.
"We’re now looking to stock at home self-test kits, which have been approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration, in selected stores from early November," a spokesperson told Yahoo.
The quick turn-around testing kits will be available through Woolworth's wellbeing business, HealthyLife.
"HealthyLife will have tests shipping to customers from the 1st of November. Customers can pre-order them now."
A two-pack costs $30 and a five-pack costs $50.
Australia late to adopt rapid Antigen tests
Such testing kits have long been used in overseas markets such as the US and the UK for many months, but Australia has taken its time to allow their use in the broader domestic community, despite calls from epidemiologists for wider adoption.
In December, UNSW Professor Mary-Louise McLaws, a leading epidemiologist and World Health Organisation advisor, told Yahoo News Australia rapid testing should be rolled out for certain essential workers.
Despite some patchy trial use, Australian regulators have been cautious, in part over concerns of accuracy and effectiveness inn detecting the Delta variant.
Therapeutic Goods Administration boss John Skerritt told a Senate committee last month it was working to approve the best options on the market.
"It does seem that some of the tests - and I don't want to name particular products, but some of them are quite significant products - are much less sensitive against Delta," he said.
What are rapid Antigen tests?
While they are less accurate, they can prove vital in the early stages of infection when viral load is at its highest and offer a considerably faster result than PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests which can typically take some 24 hours to process.
A PCR tests detects genetic material from a specific organism, such as a virus, and are highly accurate (and can even detect fragments of the virus when you are no longer infectious).
Antigen tests are less accurate and rely on a chemical reaction. They typically require a swab (usually a small cotton bud) that is placed into a chemical solution to give a result in roughly 15 minutes.
If a test is positive, patients are expected to seek out a more reliable PCR test.
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