Australia's Medical Association VP warned govt on procuring RATs in September: Report

As the cases of COVID-19 continue to witness a rise in Australia, the Australian Medical Association Vice President Chris Moy has insisted that he had told senior executives in the health department to develop a plan for obtaining rapid antigen tests (RATs) in September. Speaking to The Guardian Australia, Chris Moy claimed that he was told that the government was not interested in getting involved in the private market. Moy mentioned that he had raised the question as he was aware of what was happening in other countries. 

Chris Moy has revealed that he knew that the country required rapid antigen tests (RATs) and that they needed a proper plan to procure them. The AMA Vice President Chris Moy further mentioned that they have been “caught short” due to Omicron and the number of COVID-19 cases. He added that they need to be sure if they are going to depend on the private market in a health emergency. The statement of Chris Moy comes at a time when Australia is witnessing a rise in COVID-19 cases driven by the highly transmissible Omicron variant. 

Reports of overpricing of COVID-19 tests in Australia

Rod Sims, the chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, on Tuesday, told retailers that the watchdog would “name and shame” companies involved in “unconscionable conduct” over the price of COVID-19 tests, as per The Guardian report. Sims raised concern over the price of rapid antigen tests and revealed his plan to write to both the suppliers and retailers of these tests to know about their stock levels. He added that they have started conducting an investigation about reports related to overpricing of tests. He called on the people to contact the ACCC if they had been told to pay a high price for the test.

COVID-19 situation in Australia

According to the Australian Health Department, as of January 4, 47816 COVID-19 cases have been reported in the last 24 hours taking the overall tally to 547,653. Among the total number of people currently hospitalised are 2682 and 184 are in ICU. The total number of fatalities reported due to COVID-19 in Australia is 2271. 19,475,425 people above the age of 16 have received the first dose of the vaccine while 18,872,228 people have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. 2,566,329 people have received the booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.