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Rapid Antigen Covid testing is being introduced into the community over the holiday period for unvaccinated and asymptomatic people who are traveling, either by road across the Auckland border, or by plane or ferry.
RATs will be available in participating pharmacies from Wednesday, for people who are required to show a negative test to travel. Results show up in about 15 minutes, and are free for eligible domestic travellers aged over 12 years.
Twenty-nine large business, including airports, energy producers, food manufacturers and retirement homes have been trialing RATs since October. From Wednesday until the end of January eligible people can take a 'point of care' supervised test, in front of a pharmacist.
DIY rapid antigen kits are in consideration for retail sale after this initial period.
However, they're not as accurate as a PCR test - some results are false positives and have to be confirmed with a PCR test done at a testing centre and processed at a laboratory.
Kathryn Ryan speaks chief executive of the Pharmacy Guild Andrew Gaudin and Juliet Elvy, deputy chair of the Medical Microbiologists network.