EXCLUSIVE: Skyrocketing bill for Covid testing tops $1billion as Australia persists with ban on rapid antigen tests that 'hold key to beating lockdown'
Australia has reached a new milestone with the cost of Covid-19 testing stinging the taxpayer for more than $1billion.
Daily Mail Australia can reveal working Australians contribute between $42.50 and a whopping $85 each and every time someone is tested for coronavirus.
The milestone comes amid frustration health authorities are persisting with a ban on much cheaper $15 rapid antigen tests, which have been adopted around the world and produce accurate results in just minutes.
The cost of Covid tests in Australia has broken the billion-dollar mark as calls to implement rapid antigen testing ramp up
Covid cases continue to soar in NSW, with tens of thousands being tested every day
Rapid antigen tests could reduce costs and provide faster Covid test results, diagnostics experts believe
COVID TESTS OVER THE PAST 7 DAYS
Victoria: 323,095
NSW: 590,130
SA: 115,963
QLD: 90,767
WA: 37,733
TAS: 9,885
NT: 9,215
ACT: 6,920
TOTAL: 1,180,708
The Australian Government pays Medicare Benefits Schedule rebates for private patient Covid-19 tests.
More than 9 million private patient tests have been bulk-billed under the MBS by a range of public and private providers who are sharing the load of testing.
For the Covid-19 pathology test, the MBS sets a $42.50 rebate for public providers and $85.00 rebate for private providers.
Additional MBS rebates for the costs associated with collection and management of patient specimens also apply. The Australian Government has paid abound $760 million for MBS funded COVID-19 pathology tests.
Daily Mail Australia can also reveal children suffering isolation in Melbourne have been visited by health officials guarded by soldiers.
Families were visited on Sunday by mistake after a Victorian health department bungle wrongly identified them.
One father, who asked to remain anonymous, said an official demanded to see his young son under the premise of a 'welfare check
On Friday, a little over 23.3 million Australians had been tested for the virus - at a cost to taxpayers of $760 million through the Medicare Benefits Schedule.
That number soared over the weekend, with the Australian Government Department of Health website registering 24million tests to date on Monday - 173,128 over the past 24 hours.
In NSW, which recorded 145 new cases of the virus on Monday, 98,000 Covid tests were conducted as of 8pm Sunday.
Despite the number of tests, which now total more than 8.5 million in NSW, most Australians remain under hard lockdown.
More than 1,000 people flooded the streets in Melbourne's CBD on Saturday to protest the latest lockdown, with many more taking to the streets in Covid-ravaged Sydney.
The demonstrators were seen abandoning face masks and disregarding social distancing, raising concerns the anti-lockdown rally could act as a super spreader for Covid-19.
The soaring test costs have led to renewed calls for the Commonwealth and state governments to introduce cheap and effective rapid antigen tests to run in tandem with the more expensive polymerase chain reaction tests.
PCR tests, which require pathology testing inside a laboratory, remain the only tests available to the general public.
Last week, the United States' Center for Disease Control and Prevention warned pathology labs it would end its support for the tests from December 31 due to concerns over their accuracy.
'CDC encourages laboratories to consider adoption of a multiplexed method that can facilitate detection and differentiation of SARS-CoV-2 and influenza viruses,' it stated in an alert.
Rapid antigen testing kits can be bought over the counter in countries including Belgium
Health personnel speak to people queuing in their cars at a Covid-19 test site in Albert Park, Melbourne, last year
People line up at a Covid testing site in Prahran last week after a positive Covid case attended the Prahran Market in Melbourne. More than 900 people needed to get tested and isolate as the Melbourne lockdown continued.
Australian Defence Force soldiers are lobbing up at the homes of children as Victorian health officials do 'welfare checks'
BUNGLING HEATH OFFICIALS UNLEASH SOLDIERS ON KIDS
Children suffering isolation in Melbourne have been visited by health officials guarded by soldiers.
Daily Mail Australia can reveal families were visited on Sunday by mistake after a Victorian health department bungle wrongly identified them.
One father, who asked to remain anonymous, said an official demanded to see his young son under the premise of a 'welfare check'.
His family had just been released from 14 days isolation after attending the MCC on July 10 when an infected member was there.
The search party had wrongly believed the man's son had been isolating due to a related Covid event at Trinity Grammar.
A teacher who attended the same game had become infected, forcing students and teachers into isolation.
The health officials refused to leave the boy's home before speaking to him, despite being shown an email from their own department clearing him of quarantine.
'It was pretty intimidating. They demanded he present at the door and then asked for his phone number,' the boy's father said.
'They wouldn't accept they had got it wrong. '
The man labelled Victoria's health department a 'disgrace'.
'They couldn't have cared less for my son's health. They wanted to make sure he was home and we were isolating, even though we had clearance and they had mucked up their contact tracing yet again,' he said.
Daily Mail Australia has reported the incident to Victoria's health department, but received no response.
Experts claim by running rapid antigen and rapid antibody tests in parallel with PCR tests, patients understand after 15 minutes with a high degree of accuracy whether they have or have had the virus.
Such tests, which can be bought over the counter in the United States and United Kingdom, can quickly identify potential carriers and cost as little as $15 a pop.
John Kelly, managing director at Atomo Diagnostics, told Daily Mail Australia on Monday the high cost of PCR tests had impacted on Australia's most vulnerable.
'The number of PCR tests being made available to screen workers in aged care, has been severely limited due to cost – typically twice or three times a month,' he said.
'Rapid tests being only one tenth of the cost, could be used every two days. Studies published by the US Government's Institute of Health demonstrate that frequent rapid testing is a more effective way to manage risk in these environments.
'The benefit of also getting results at the time of the test in invaluable. Finding out a worker has Covid the day after they have worked a shift while infectious is just too late.'
A spokeswoman for the Commonwealth health department told Daily Mail Australia it continued to back PCR testing.
'Covid-19 pathology testing remains an important part of the strategy to contain the spread of COVID-19, with testing at no charge to patients forming a central part of the Australian Government's Covid-19 health response,' she said.
'The government and public and private pathology laboratories have successfully worked together on delivering Covid-19 pathology testing throughout the pandemic.'
Sources have told Daily Mail Australia Australian pathology companies were 'rolling in cash'.
'One director in Melbourne is getting about in a different coloured Lamborghini for every day of the week,' he said.
The majority of COVID-19 tests have been provided to public patients under state and territory health testing services.
The Australian Government is providing financial support for pathology testing through its 'National Partnership on COVID-19 Response', funding 50 per cent of the costs of public health testing facilities.
Soldiers have been accompanying Victorian health officials to check on the 'welfare' of children under quarantine directions
Victorians caught up in Tier 1 Covid scares have been told to obtain multiple tests before they are released from quarantine
Drive-through Covid testing sites have become 'the norm' for anyone getting about Melbourne
Soldiers have scared young children after turning up in support of bungling health care workers in Melbourne
Under the partnership, all governments have committed to providing Covid-19 pathology testing to people in Australia free of-charge, regardless of Medicare eligibility.
This includes all Australian citizens, permanent residents and all visa holders, including those who are not eligible for Medicare.
The Commonwealth has committed to spend a total of $311 billion to fight Covid-19, including $20 billion on health support and $290 billion in economic stimulus.
According to May’s budget, the government has spent an additional $41 billion on economic support and $3 billion on health since December’s mid-year economic update.
A diagnostic insider told Daily Mail Australia the taxpayer expense of testing Australians could be far better spent.
'If the amount of $3-4 billion spent on PCR testing was used to purchase rapid tests, it would be enough to test every person in Australians ten time each,' he said.