Testing for COVID-19

When to test

You should test if you have been exposed to COVID-19 or have symptoms compatible with COVID-19, and are at high risk of severe disease and may benefit from COVID-19 treatments. 

How to access testing

You can access testing to determine whether you have COVID-19 in the following ways:

• See your doctor to get a pathology referral form to test for COVID-19. This test will require a specimen to be collected, and testing is done in a laboratory.
• Go to a clinic that can do a point-of-care test to detect COVID-19 . This is done by a trained professional at the site where the patient is being examined. To find out where this type of testing occurs, contact your local state and territory governments.
• Get a rapid antigen self-test (RAT)  through various suppliers. You can do this test at home.

Testing positive

If you test positive to COVID-19, you can pass the virus on to others. You should take action to:

• look after yourself
• reduce the spread of diseases and protect the community by:
  • staying home if you feel unwell
  • washing your hands regularly with soap and water or if necessary alcohol-based hand rub
  • if you do need to interact with others, maintain physical distance from others, cover your nose and mouth when coughing and sneezing, and consider wearing a mask or respirator
  • keeping up to date with vaccination.

Read more about what you should do if you test positive. 

Testing negative when you have symptoms

If you have COVID-19 symptoms and are at higher risk of severe disease, but test negative using a RAT test, see your doctor to do further testing for COVID-19 or other viruses.