The City of Greater Geelong will continue to distribute Victorian government-funded rapid antigen tests (RATs), with the roll-out program extended until December this year.
Test kits are freely available to all community members at many municipal locations including libraries, recreation centres and customer service centres.
Community members can take up to two kits per household member, while those with a disability or their carer can take up to four kits.
The city has handed out 44,000 test kits since early 2023 with each kit containing five RATs, which means more than 200,000 RATs have been distributed to the Geelong community so far this year.
Geelong Mayor Trent Sullivan welcomed the news that the tests would continue to be available free of charge.
“I thank the Victorian Government for the extension of this program and encourage all residents to make the most of the opportunity to obtain free rapid antigen tests,” Mayor Sullivan said.
“There’s been an incredibly strong uptake across the first part of 2023, which is really pleasing, so it’s terrific to see Greater Geelong residents prioritising their health and that of others.”
Deputy Mayor Anthony Aitken urged community members to take up the offer of obtaining free tests.
“We know the RATs are a convenient and fast way to detect Covid-19 once someone begins to show cold-like symptoms,” Deputy Mayor Aitken said.
“I have witnessed first-hand the success of this partnership program between State and Local Governments with multiple members of our community collecting the free RATs at City of Greater Geelong Customer Service Centre at Corio Village.
“There are no eligibility requirements when collecting free tests, so it doesn’t matter what a person’s age or health, disability or carer status is.
“All we would ask is that people experiencing symptoms don’t attend these facilities for a test but rather wait until they’re well or have someone collect a RAT for them.”
For more information visit geelong.link/covidsupport.
