23 February, 2022

23 February 2022

The NSW Government has made a commitment to make COVID-19 Rapid Antigen Tests (RATs) more easily available to NSW residents in order to boost the pandemic health response across the state.

Aboriginal Affairs NSW and NSWALC continue to work together to ensure Aboriginal communities have priority access to RATs. Through these efforts, an additional supply of RATs has been secured for LALC Offices and LALC Housing Tenants. The rollout of these RATs will help to protect the community and take pressure off the health system until more people can get their vaccine booster shots.

This supply is in addition to the supply recently provided by NSWALC for LALCs, which have begun being delivered over the past week.

This means that LALCs will now be receiving three separate deliveries of RATs:

1. NSWALC provided RATs for LALC Offices (Delivery currently in progress)
2. NSW Government provided RATs for LALC Housing Tenants (Delivery in late February/early March 2022)
3. NSW Government Provided RATs for LALC Offices (Delivery in mid-March 2022)

At this stage NSWALC and AA do not intend to provide any further supply of RATs to LALCs.

Instructions for Distribution of RATs

Round 1 – RATs for LALC Offices

Delivery of these RATs is currently underway. Each LALC will receive 100 RATs, which can be used to assist staff with essential face to face gatherings. Further information on this round can be found by clicking here for the NSWALC Network Message from 4 February 2022.

Round 2 – RATs for LALC Housing Tenants

LALCs with Housing Portfolios will receive a supply of RATs to be distributed to LALC Housing Tenants.

This round will be delivered to the LALC office and will be clearly marked for ‘Tenants in LALC Housing’ so that LALCs can be aware of which allotment is which. Round 2 deliveries will occur across late February and early March.

LALCs are asked to distribute the kits as evenly as possible amongst tenants and households. Please note that in some cases there may not be enough RATs for every member of each household.

Round 3 – Additional RATs for LALC Offices

All LALCs will receive an additional supply of 150 RATs, which can be used to assist staff with essential face to face gatherings, as per Round 1.

Round 3 deliveries will occur in mid-March.

Information on RAT Test Kits

Instructions on how to use the RATs will come with each test kit. RATs may be a mixture of Nasal Swab and Saliva Test kits.

Further information on the use of RATs and guidelines regarding positive test results can be found here:

• How to use a Nasal Swab RAT:  How to use a Nasal Swab RAT (vimeo.com)
• How to use a Saliva Test RAT: How to use a Saliva Test RAT (facebook.com)
• Factsheet – Testing & Care at Home: Centre for Aboriginal Health Fact Sheet (nsw.gov.au)
• Flyer – Testing & Care at Home: Centre for Aboriginal Health Flyer (nsw.gov.au)