Sydney 29 August : Beginning Monday pensioners and other concession card holders in Australia’s New South Wales (NSW) state will have access to as many as 10 free Covid rapid antigen tests (RATs). “Although we are getting to the end of winter, the threat of Covid-19 is still present and we must ensure that access to RATs is easy for concession card holders and pensioners,” Victor Dominello, minister for digital government and customer service of the NSW government on Monday, said.
The new program which runs through the end of October, the eligible are mostly veterans, pensioners and those with poor incomes, as per Xinhua news agency.
“This is in line with our earlier pledge to take over the federal government’s Concessional Access Program, which was canceled in the middle of the month.” stated NSW Minister for Multiculturalism and Minister of Seniors Mark Coure.
A factsheet released by the department of health in the Department of Health showed that from January to July of this year the Australian government introduced an concessional access scheme called RAT that allowed concession card holders to take 20 free tests during the course of six months.
On the morning of Monday, Australia has recorded 9,976,582 confirmed cases and 13,648 deaths as the seven-day average of daily growth has risen to close to 12,000 cases per day.
