Victoria Health Minister Martin Foley said about a third of Victorians getting a PCR test were testing positive to COVID-19.
Mr Foley said rapid antigen tests had to be central to the new way of responding to ease pressure on the PCR testing system.
He said at least 700,000 of the 44 million rapid antigen tests ordered by the Victorian government would be arriving in the next day or so.
He said he would be signing new pandemic orders, which will come into effect at 11.59pm, that recognise people with a rapid antigen test as a “probable case”.
“Essentially they will have precisely the same obligations and the same rights as someone, whether it be for clinical support, financial support, from both the state or the Commonwealth, a whole range of other opportunities to be part of that primary healthcare response to keep them safe as they work through their infectivity,” he said.
“Essentially this new category based on the rapid antigen test will be the same in the system as if you were diagnosed through a PCR test.”
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