Why five million rapid antigen tests reserved for Australia could be sent to ...

More than five million rapid antigen test kits reserved for Australia could be sent to the United States because of bureaucratic delays.

Self-testing kits are sold out at chemists and online across Australia as Omicron case numbers, in almost every state, continue to surge in the tens of thousands every day.

Australia's Therapeutic Goods Administration didn't approve any of the kits until October - almost a year after their counterparts in the US and the UK. 

SupplyAus, an Aboriginal-run good distribution business, imported home-test kits from China that have been approved for use in the US but not Australia.

Chief executive Adam Williams said those much-needed kits would be sent to the US unless the TGA approved them so they could be available in Indigenous communities for $5.

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'We have five million units that we could put on commercial planes within a matter of hours,' he told the ABC's 7.30 program.

'If this goes any longer, we'll probably just sell them there.

'Just sitting there in storage doesn't make any point and the factory's constantly calling us to say, "Adam, I have people around the world that want to buy these. 

'"Are you taking them or not?"'  

The TGA, an agency of the federal Department of Health, has now approved 21 kits, with 15 of them from China.

But with Chinese New Year coming up on February 1, Chinese factories are set to close, further delaying supplies.

Australia's TGA didn't approve its first self-administered rapid antigen test until October 2021.

The American Food and Drug Administration approved the first over-the-counter home testing kit in December 2020.