Coles and Woolworths are set to stock consumer-grade rapid antigen testing kits for sale, with Coles to stock the kits as soon as next week.
According to Coles the packs will be available online and at the supermarket’s service desk in Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, Northern Territory, the ACT and Tasmania, and are approved for at-home use in Australia.
“We will be offering the TGA approved Hough Pharma Covid Antigen Nasal Test in packs of two and five,” a Coles spokesperson told Inside Retail.
Woolworths is also looking to stock the kits in select stores from early November, and said its digital health and wellness business HealthyLife will be able to ship tests to customers as of November 1.
Until now, rapid antigen testing has not been made available for use by the general public in Australia, instead confined to use within business and health environments.
State guidelines prevent the businesses from shipping the tests to South Australia or Western Australia.
According to Healhylife, the tests detect indicators of the body’s creation of antibodies against the Covid-19 virus, and may not necessarily provide a diagnosis of a current Covid-19 infection.
