Opening hours at Canberra's PCR testing facilities could be reduced in the coming weeks as demand for COVID tests has plummeted.
Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said while the government still planned to retain free testing capacity for COVID there were considerations about winding this back.
"We are looking at reducing some of the hours of PCR testing availability just because we've seen a really big drop-off in demand for PCR testing," Ms Stephen-Smith said.
"We're considering how much public PCR testing we need to be available to our community. We are intending to have that available free of charge both north side and south side."
Ms Stephen-Smith said the tests were expensive to provide.
The ACT's public health emergency declaration is due to finish on September 30. The ACT is expected to enact a COVID-19 management declaration when this is over.
The special COVID-19 management laws give government ministers the power to make decisions around certain public directions.
Meanwhile, authorities have confirmed some elective surgeries will be postponed due to next week's public holiday to mark the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
About 28 surgeries have already been postponed.
Authorities have been working through plans over recent days after the one-off public holiday was announced on the weekend.
People who have been affected have been contacted and Ms Stephen-Smith said they were working to reschedule the surgeries. She indicated it was unlikely that surgeries in the following weeks would be pushed back.
"We will try to reschedule those elective surgery patients whose surgeries have been delayed as quickly as possible but there will be surgeries that are booked in for future weeks so it may be some weeks until those can be booked in," she said.
"Each of those people will probably have to wait for a different length of time for their rescheduled surgery but the team will be trying to get people in as quickly as possible."
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