Testing for SARS-CoV-2 is the foundation of the public health responses to COVID-19, enabling case identification, contract tracing and providing essential surveillance to track the pandemic. COVID-19 has affected vulnerable populations disproportionately worldwide – largely due to high rates of chronic conditions, lack of access to quality tertiary care and overcrowded houses limiting the ability of individuals to self-isolate. Aboriginal and / or Torres Strait Islander people living in remote communities in Australia are vulnerable to the impact of COVID-19. Furthermore, in many remote Aboriginal communities, there are structural barriers, with laboratories and tertiary hospitals based in major cities, and are often thousands of kilometers away from the remote locations, creating lengthy delays in access to timely results.

In April 2020, the Australian government, Indigenous Health Branch funded the Kirby institute at UNSW in collaboration with Flinders University International Centre for Point of Care Testing to implement the Remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander COVID-19 POC Testing Program using the GeneXpert platform in 86 health services in remote communities across Australia. The Program leveraged the infrastructure from an existing network of GeneXpert devices currently being used for testing of sexually transmitted infections point of care (POC) testing in 31 remote communities (www.ttango.com.au). Among these sites, 29 are participating in the COVID 19 POC test program. The goal of the remote COVID-19 POC testing program was to establish a quality framework of COVID-19 POC testing in primary care settings to provide rapid COVID-19 test results, inform clinical decision making, enable swifter public health responses and reduce unnecessary aero-evacuations and reduce transmission in remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander communities. As an operational program, there is no formal research to evaluate the program,