Australians trying to get their hands on hard-to-find COVID-19 rapid antigen tests (RATs) may not need to wait much longer, with retail chains flagging a large supply is due to arrive in Queensland in the coming weeks.
As the Omicron variant sweeps through the state and case numbers continue to climb, RATs have been in high demand, with the majority of pharmacies sold out of the tests.
The supply of RAT kits has been restricted because they are manufactured overseas.
Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate today called on the state and federal governments to support his proposal to fly directly to Asia to purchase RATs for Queensland, arguing it could help to take some pressure off the state's retail and hospitality sectors.
The head of the Queensland branch of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, Chris Owen, said a large supply of RATs would be made available in the state within a fortnight.
"If I had to give you my best, most educated guess, I'd say that in 12 to 14 days there will be a steady supply of tests on shelves," Mr Owen said.
Mr Owen said his expectations were more conservative than the major supermarket chains, but RATs should be plentiful by the middle of February.
"Certainly by Valentine's Day — so the 14th of February — you could say that there shouldn't be a shortage," he said.
Mr Owen said the tests would be equally distributed among metropolitan and regional areas due to community-service obligations placed on national wholesalers of PBS pharmaceuticals.
The Queensland government has also secured a supply of 23 million RATs from overseas with 2.8 million already delivered to the state's health system.
Chief Health Officer John Gerrard said not everyone was eligible to receive one at the state-run testing sites.
"We're giving rapid antigen tests to people who come to the fever clinics; those on six days of their quarantine period and those who need a PCR test and can't get one at the clinic," he said.
"The rapid antigen tests will also be used in the hospital system, in the emergency departments, they will be used in a variety of areas.
"Additional supplies will be arriving in retail outlets in the coming days and weeks as well so for other purposes people should be relying on the retailers more than Queensland Health."
'Tens of thousands' of tests being shipped
Two of Australia's biggest retail groups have flagged pressure on the supply of RATs will ease from next week.
But the answer to when exactly a person will be able to walk into a retailer and expect to see the tests available for sale may be sooner than most think.
Asked about this, two of Australia's biggest retail groups gave the same response: Pressure will ease from next week.
A spokesperson for Woolworths said it was already the case that "tens of thousands" of tests were being shipped to stores nationally on a daily basis.
"Stocks should start to get better next week, and we're working with suppliers to get stocks through our warehouses and into stores as quickly as possible," the spokesperson said.
The national supermarket chain said it had seven suppliers of RATs, but it was difficult to put a concrete timeline on when the market would be flooded with the kits.
"We have large orders of stock on the way from our suppliers and expect the availability of kits to improve for our customers over the coming weeks," the spokesperson said.
As it stands, most supermarkets are selling RAT kits from behind customer service desks, with purchase limits of one kit per transaction, per customer.
Sigma Healthcare supplies the kits to some of Australia's biggest chemist brands, including Amcal and Guardian pharmacies.
A spokesperson for the company said consumers should expect the supply of RATs to accelerate from next month.
"Sigma is progressively accessing supply of RATs to distribute to its pharmacy customers, and expects supply to accelerate over the coming weeks to help meet public demand for tests," a spokesperson said.
"Whilst Sigma expects supply to increase from next week, the real jump in RATs supply will come in early February.''
In Queensland, there are two companies awaiting TGA approval to supply and manufacture their rapid antigen tests to the Australian market.
The Queensland government has been keenly promoting the local manufacturing capability of a Brisbane-based business.
But AnteoTech chief executive officer Derek Thomson said the future supply of RATs by his company would not help with Australia's current shortage.
"But that's hardly going to make a dent in the supply issue that we currently face."
