The government will purchase an additional 9 million rapid antigen tests (RATs), extending freely available tests by three months. 

Health Minister Shane Reti announced today that nearly $200m of the funding will go towards vaccines and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test processing. 

Health Minister Shane Reti told Jack Tame “I believe Kiwis want to do the right thing and follow their isolations.” 

Reti says “We want to get through this at-risk period. It peaks at mid-year and end-of-year.” 

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