Rapid Antigen Test rollout update

More than 3 million Rapid Antigen Tests (RATs) have been distributed across New Zealand for workers who keep New Zealand’s critical services and supply chains moving, and those in our community most at risk from the effects of COVID-19, Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield says.

The deliveries follow the opening of the Close Contact Exemption Scheme and the move to Phase 2 of the Omicron response strategy.

Dr Bloomfield says the RATs have been sent to sites including District Health Boards, Healthcare and Emergency Service workforces, testing facilities, GP clinics, aged care facilities and community health providers. ‘The Ministry has also provided RATs directly to organisations, including businesses that are currently affected by outbreaks, to make it easier to test their workers who are contacts and keep their organisations running. ‘Although there are still significant global supply constraints, we have secured the delivery of enough RATs to help New Zealand through a widespread Omicron outbreak in the coming months. ‘There are currently 7.3 million RATs in the system with around 22.5 million expected by the end of the month, including 9.2 million due to arrive by the end of next week. ‘On the first day of the scheme around 200 orders were received and we expect these numbers to go up rapidly which is why we will be scaling up in line with demand. ‘There are collection sites in every DHB around the country, with nearly 100 collection sites ready to go across New Zealand.

This number will increase in line with demand as cases rise during the outbreak and more critical workers become close contacts. ‘We are also working with around 1000 community health providers to help those we know experience poorer