Secret RAT pack passing each test

MEET Australia’s new Covid-19 frontline: not a medical lab or hospital emergency ward, but a production line of staff pumping out desperately needed rapid antigen tests.

The small team is working day and night in a Sydney warehouse to deliver millions of tests across the country.

The tests are being sent from South Korea to a restricted-zone warehouse, isolated from the outside world, where 24 men and women are processing, labelling and sending out more than 10,000 rapid antigen (RAT) and PCR tests every hour – totalling more than 250,000 tests a day.

Last year they pushed out 35 million tests and next year they are aiming at supplying another 30 million – and that is on top of Roche’s usual core business sending out medical tests for things such as blood, cholesterol and cancer.

Roche managing director Allison Rossiter said of staff: “They are taking enormous precautions to keep the warehouse safe and Covid-free.

“One case could shut down the whole operation.”

The tests arrive from South Korea and have to have a Tga-approved sticker applied, as well as a QR code, before being shipped out, mainly to chemists and health departments.

But before that operation fires up, each team member must themselves take a rapid antigen test every time they start a shift, and between each shift the warehouse undergoes a deep clean.

Supply chain manager Tina Kellar, who oversees the warehouse operations, said many of the workers had not had dinner with their families for more than a year.

“And some of them haven’t seen their families for breakfast since last year,” she said.

“But they are very proud to be able to do something to help the community.”

Roche Diagnostics Australia is one of 13 suppliers of the 15 kits approved by the TGA for use in Australia.