People seeking a COVID-19 test for the sake of travelling will be turned away at public testing facilities and redirected to private pathology, ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith has advised.
Free testing of people without COVID symptoms who hadn't attended an exposure location have never taken place at publicly funded locations in the ACT, the Health Minister told ABC on Tuesday.
"To get a free COVID test you need to meet the testing criteria," Ms Stephen-Smith said.
"People who need a test for travel who don't have any symptoms and are purely getting a negative test for travel are not eligible to get a test at an ACT government free testing clinic" she said.
"If you have symptoms go and get tested, that is what our free testing is for."
There was 12 new cases of COVID reported in the ACT on Tuesday, bringing the total number of active cases to 185.
Wait times at testing facilities had been reported as more than 1.5 hours at 9.50am after waits of more than two hours were experienced on Monday.
The Health Minister said rapid antigen tests were currently being considered for ACT schools, with 21 schools having been named as potential exposure locations since November 1.
Ms Stephen-Smith said this had placed a significant number of staff and students in quarantine.
"The test-and-stay model looks at doing a daily rapid antigen test for those students, so if they actually come back negative they can actually go to school, rather than remaining in quarantine," she said.
Ms Stephen-Smith said who would be checking the negative test results, making sure they were being carried out correctly was currently being discussed.
"Also some concerns have been raised over the impact on children of requiring them to take that daily test," she said.
Ms Stephen-Smith said ACT Health was currently discussing whether they would pilot a test-and-stay model this semester or whether to see outcomes from similar programs in NSW, Victoria and overseas.
She said families would not be made to pay for kits if they were introduced.
