The 1.5 million point-of-care COVID-19 tests that the Federal Minister for Health promised GPs this week have been described as near-useless in ruling out cases of acute infection.

Supplies of swab-based tests requiring laboratory analysis have been dwindling in Australia, forcing authorities to restrict who can be tested despite growing community transmission. 

But on Tuesday, Minister for Health Greg Hunt fronted the media to reveal point-of-care tests (POCT) were on their way to Australia — a move he claimed would be “very important to our doctors and other health workers in a general practice setting”.

Australian Doctor has discovered that the government has ordered 1.5 million serology tests, which look for IgM and IgG antibodies, from a variety of manufacturers across the world.