Prime Minister Scott Morrison wants states to allow rapid antigen tests for travel instead of PCR

Australians who travel around the country could soon be allowed to use a rapid antigen test instead of lining up at a Covid clinic following a national cabinet meeting.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison is calling on Queensland, Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia to scrap requirements for a PCR test to show a negative Covid result.

Instead, the federal government is urging those states to allow travellers to produce a rapid antigen test result to pass a border check point. 

‘What Omicron means is we will see I think greater use of these rapid antigen tests,’ Mr Morrison said.

‘Now they’re tax deductible if you need to take one for work purposes.’

Mr Morrison noted that a quarter of people lining up for a PCR or polymerase chain reaction test were asymptomatic.

‘We’ve all seen the terrible queues and the long waits people have had – some 20 to 25 per cent, one in five, one in four people waiting in those queues are not symptomatic,’ he said.