Federal Health Secretary Greg Hunt has asked the country’s medical regulator to urgently review the widespread use of rapid antigen tests in the workplace and for home use as the federal government pushes federal government plans to allow Australians to travel abroad by the end of the year.

Rapid antigen tests are used to monitor COVID-19 cases in many contexts abroad, including in the US and UK, but have not yet been widely used as a weapon against the virus in Australia.

Rapid antigen tests will be part of workplace and home testing in the near future, the health minister says.Credit:Kate Geraghty

Alison McMillan, chief nursing and midwife officer, advised people to prepare for cell phone apps that would track their location, a necessary device, she said, when the country introduced home quarantine.

Mr. Hunt said by way of introduction Tests at home and quarantine as well as the digital vaccination card and a new digital border pass, would bring overseas travel closer to Australians.

“We want Australians to be able to travel abroad as early as possible,” he said on Tuesday afternoon.

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“I hope these tests will be available to the workstations as soon as possible and then as soon as we have the support of the AHPPC [Australian Health Protection Principal Committee], inside the house, ”he said.

Of the eligible population aged 16 and over, 68.5 percent received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, while 43.2 percent of the eligible population are fully vaccinated.

A new model of the Doherty Institute will be unveiled in the national cabinet on Friday, strengthening the four-tier national plan to begin opening when 70 percent of the eligible population is vaccinated. It is expected to provide further evidence that it is safe to move into Phases B and C of the plan even with the higher drop and delta loading in Victoria and NSW.

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