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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-11-18 Daily Xml
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COVID-19 Rapid Antigen Testing

The Hon. F. PANGALLO (15:06): Will the minister be talking to the State Coordinator and pointing out to him that these home test kits are freely available in other states, and what is the State Coordinator's tipping point before these kits are actually made available to South Australians? Do we have to wait until—

The PRESIDENT: You have asked the question.

The Hon. F. PANGALLO: Just about three more words: do we have to wait until it is spreading throughout the community?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (15:07): First of all, I would like to clarify this: that the direction is certainly issued by the State Coordinator, but on a matter like this the State Coordinator would rely heavily on SA Health's advice. I can assure you that, because of the high level of interest in the community and, to be frank, interest by other governments and also business, it would be true to say that a number of businesses are interested in how rapid antigen testing can assist them in their business continuity plans. I can assure you that SA Health is often having to discuss the relevance of rapid antigen testing.

To be frank, I am not aware of the threshold in terms of the level of community transmission where SA Health would be anticipating broader use of rapid antigen testing. But certainly, as I said before, in the context of particularly high-risk environments such as freight driving, hospitals, ambulance services, there are already plans to use rapid antigen testing, if it's not already being used.

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