Professor Mark Ferguson:

I thank the Chairman and members of the committee for inviting me. I was asked to chair a group of experts to advise the Minister for Health on rapid testing. Our report has been published and is available to the committee. It has a number of recommendations and there is also a body of evidence and references within the report.

By way of an opening statement, I will just say that this is a very important and rapidly moving field. Many new tests are being developed, with 1,000 or more under development, and many tests are being approved by regulatory authorities around the world. Many countries have adopted rapid testing as part of their strategy and the evidence base for rapid testing is also developing very rapidly.

Probably the most efficient thing is for me to turn this over to questions from the members and I will do my best to answer those.