It comes amid a push to remove the GST on rapid tests but disagreements between the states and commonwealth about how to do so.Under new pandemic orders and rule changes agreed after national cabinet, people who return a positive result on a rapid antigen test will be considered “probable” Covid cases and follow the same rules as a confirmed infection.They will be separated from confirmed cases in the reporting of daily Covid numbers but all other rules around positive infections will apply, including an isolation period of seven days.The new system of self-reporting will also ensure people have a way to access isolation payments and report worsening symptoms for treatment.PCR tests will still be recommended for people who return a positive RAT, but are not contacts or symptomatic.Health Minister Martin Foley said from midnight Thursday it would become mandatory for any positive results on a rapid antigen test to be reported to the Department of Health.“What is clear is that we are in a new phase of this pandemic, and a new phase of how we need to respond,” he said.“The strategies of the last two years have served us very well in regards to those earlier variants. We need, and are, indeed, changing to a whole heap of other new approaches when it comes to how we respond to the Omicron variant.”“Forty-four million rapid antigen tests due to come in and starting to come in the coming weeks, with at least over 700,000 coming in very current time frames of the next day or so.”Mr Foley said the new pandemic orders would mean people with positive rapid tests can access the same amount of support services available to others who have the disease.Acting chief health officer Professor Ben Cowie said labs were reporting that 90 to 95 per cent of positive rapid tests went on to be proven correct by PCR.“In the current environment, rapid antigen tests provide a really high degree of diagnostic authority,” he said.“This is the biggest change to our testing system since the start of the pandemic.“It is likely that in the first 10 days of this year, our testing system will diagnose more people than it did in all 2021. That’s the sort of volumes we’re talking about.”Prof Cowie said the new online and phone reporting systems would be online on Friday.He said a pilot program of handing out 2000 rapid tests at state-run testing centres was successful and would continue this week.Calls are also mounting for GST on rapid tests to be scrapped to make them more affordable at stores.Prime Minister Scott Morrison has maintained the move would need the support of every state, but Victoria, New South Wales and other jurisdictions have said the decision ultimately rests with the federal government.
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