Thousandsxjmtzyw of people living with a disability are set to receive Rapid Antigen Tests (RATs) following public pressure and criticism over a lack of access for some of Australia’s most vulnerable.
The government announced almost 300,000 RATs would be distributed to thousands of people with disabilities and their support workers.
Recent figures revealed that people living with a disability have fallen 10 per cent behind other Australians in their vaccination rates.
Disability Services Minister Natasha Maclaren-Jones said NSW disability service providers would distribute testing kits to nearly 9,000 people with a disability and their support workers.
“Protecting people with a disability is important because they can often be at greater risk of developing more serious illness if they become infected with Covid-19,” Ms Maclaren-Jones said.
“This roll out will help ensure that people with disability can be supported safely at home, and reduce the risk of infections spreading, as well as the potential for hospital admission.”
The initiative comes after the Commonwealth government announced the rollout of RATs as part of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).
National Disability Services chief executive officer Laurie Leigh said the disability support sector wanted to be treated the same as aged care.
“The aged care services, particularly in residential aged care, have had access to the national stockpile for rapid antigen tests,” Ms Leigh said.
“Whereas within disability services, and supported independent living, there has not been any equivalent access.
“We know that both aged care workers and disability support workers do similar work and really work hard for very low wages.”
A recent petition to make RATs free for all disability support workers has received almost 2250 signatures in just three days.
Jodie Drummond started the petition in effort to free her daughter Kyra from the cycle of isolation.
“Kyra has more than ten times more people in her household than the average Australian” she wrote.
“Kyra is currently isolating for seven days because one of her disability support workers supported Kyra while infected with Covid-19.”
Ms Drummond has pushed authorities to administer RATs before entering disability support accommodation.
