Ally Langdon and Karl test "game-changer" kits live on air
Image: Today show
Today hosts Ally Langdon and Karl Stefanovic have tested negative to COVID-19 after conducting in studio rapid-antigen tests.
These self-administered kits will be available from select Australian supermarkets next week.
The Managing Director of Roche Diagnostics Australia Ali Rossiter ran the journalists through the correct way to use them.
Ms Rossiter told Ally and Karl the first thing to do prior to use is to check the kit isn’t expired and make sure the desiccant is not showing any green balls.
Then, they set up the saline tube on the table and took the swab out of the packet, being careful not to grab the end of it.
Tilting their heads they placed the swab 2cm up the nose “parallel to the mouth.” Then they twirled the swap “about four times” in the nostril one.
“If you have been for a PCR test, it goes really far back – don’t put it really to the back,” Ms Rossiter advised.
“It shouldn’t hurt.”
Using the same swab they repeated the process on the second nostril.
Then they placed the swab in the saline, squeezed the tube gently and stirred it around about 10 times.
"The reason we are doing that we are trying to get any potential virus off the end of the tube into the water," Ms Rossiter said.
Once that is done the swab should be disposed of safely.
The next step was to gently squeeze four drops the saline solution onto the testing device and wait 15 minutes.
Image: Today show
"You don't want a line on the T because that means you have got it," Ms Rossiter said.
Ally said the wait was a nervous one as she had a tickle in her throat.
“Can I just say I haven’t waited this nervously for a test result in quite some time,” she said.
“And the last time Mack came along several months later. It’s a very anxious wait."
“Okay so the test is negative and you’re stuck with me for the rest of the morning,” she said once the result came through.