Alice Springs pharmacies are fielding dozens of interstate calls each day from people hoping to purchase rapid antigen tests (RATs), according to the head of the Northern Territory's Pharmacy Guild.
The interstate calls come as the nation faces a shortage of RATs and some state's testing systems come under serious pressure from mounting case numbers.
There are no regulations on selling RATs interstate but Alice Springs pharmacies have introduced a ban on the sale of the precious commodity to people outside the Central Australian community.
The calls from interstate buyers followed a Monday delivery of "several thousands" to the community, which the NT Pharmacy Guild president Peter Hatswell said had "virtually sold out" in a "couple of days".
Darwin pharmacies were not affected, he said, because the city had not received a recent shipment.
According to frontline staff, the Find a RAT website had been directing callers to Central Australian outlets.
"Market forces are dictating this. There certainly seem to be people selling RATs from all sorts of places, which is where the price gouging seems to be coming in."
Mr Hatswell said Alice Springs pharmacies had committed to a fixed price "no matter what the demand".
An order recalled
Mr Hatswell said he knew of only one order of Alice Springs RATs that had dispatched interstate.
A 10-pack was sold to an interstate buyer, but he said the buyer had been contacted and would be donating the tests to the Alice Springs community.
"The person who bought them was mortified," he said.
"We're trying to get it back before it leaves the town. But as yet, we haven't been successful in that."
Mr Hatswell said the new protocol would prevent this happening in the future.
Local demand strong
Like elsewhere in the country, Mr Hatswell said people in Alice Springs were "really concerned" about the looming number of highly transmissible Omicron cases in the NT.
"I think people really want RATs to keep their family safe, particularly if there are people in their family that are vulnerable," he said.
"And personally, if I was going to go out, I'd want to know that I was not putting anyone else at risk."
The NT's testing regime is increasingly reliant on RATs, as almost a third of Wednesday's reported cases were first registered by positive RATs.
RATs are also required for travel into remote communities.
People who test positive on a RAT in the NT will still need to do a PCR test to confirm the result.
