Close contacts across Victoria, NSW, and three other jurisdictions will only be people who have been in contact with a positive case in a household setting for more than four hours from January 31.
People only need to get PCR tests after returning a positive rapid antigen test or if they fit the new definition of a close contact under the new rulings.
Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly said the nation needed to brace for far more cases, but the Omicron variant was 73 per cent less severe and the early indication was the number of people in hospitals and ICUs across Australia was down on what was expected for the number of cases.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced the changes to testing on Thursday following a National Cabinet meeting to help alleviate the immense strain on testing sites across the country.
“This should significantly, we hope, over the next few weeks greatly reduce the volume (of) people who are having these PCR tests, which means we will be able to increase the turnaround time of these tests, getting results back to those who need to take them,” Mr Morrison said.
RATs will also be rolled out at testing sites across the country.
He also said states and territories would not hand out RATs for free from pharmacies and state hubs for private use, just 24 hours after Victoria announced it would make the tests free.
“What I am being very clear about them today is the governments of Australia, state and federal, are not going to do that (provide RATs for free),” Mr Morrison said.
“We will be providing them only where it is recommended to us that they need to be provided, which are in no settings of close contact, for our aged care workers or in those high-risk settings, or indeed what we hope to arrange for schooling, when we go back to school next year.
“Otherwise, people can go get those in the private market. That should provide more certainty so we can get them on the shelves and people can exercise the responsibility to only use what they need.”
Victoria’s Health Minister Martin Foley will speak to the media on Friday about the changes.