Demand for rapid antigen testing kits in the week before Christmas is outpacing supply in some locations, with shelves at Woolworths, Priceline and pharmacies left empty.
The self-test kits have become the must-have item as people prepare to entertain over the festive period. Priceline at Ashfield, Canterbury and St Ives said they had sold out as had Woolworths in Canterbury.
Jacinta McDonald of McDonalds Pharmacy in St Ives says demand for rapid antigen tests is outstripping supply.Credit:Tim Barlass
At McDonalds Pharmacy in St Ives, owner Jacinta McDonald said she sold 600 Australian-made InnoScreen tests in one day and had immediately ordered another 900.
“They are flying off shelves like hand sanitiser and toilet paper did last year,” she said. “People who have got people coming for Christmas and New Year are putting them in the cupboard and asking people to test prior to coming to their house for events, so that they can keep everyone safe.”
Caroline Diamantis, national director of the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia, owns the Balmain Community Pharmacy and said she purchased 160 kits (packs of five) rapid tests on Friday and they had all sold by lunchtime.
“I could have sold another 160,” she said. “Once again we have let ourselves down. We knew for ages that the TGA was reviewing the legislation around the supply of home testing kits. We were one of the last countries, again, to make it OK to have tests in our handbags to test before we go to venues or lunches or gatherings with older people but there were none in the country when the TGA was actually looking at approving it.”
Ms Diamantis said people were willing to pay as much as $70 or $80 for a packet of five tests. One customer who was hosting a staff Christmas party for 30 people told her he could not afford for his office to come down with COVID-19.
“He basically said unless he could find any [kits] he was about to go and cancel the party. That’s how desperate people are. It’s the must-have thing for Christmas,” she said.
Andrew Lloyd, chief executive of Melbourne-based PathDX, which imports Ecotest saliva-based antigen test kits – available at Woolworths, 7-Eleven and major pharmacies – said orders tripled in the past week. The two-test kit sells for $24.95 and $62.50 for the five-test pack. The company has sold the five pack kit to the Victorian government and it is handed out for free at state-operated PCR testing centres.
