Mr Morrison, the Prime Minister who has said that not everything can be given away for free, set Australians up for an insoluble dilemma when he said that under no circumstances would the government be distributing RAT kits at no charge.

This was to protect retailers who might not be able to sell their stocks if kits could be obtained for free. Some of those retailers now stand accused of breaking kits of five tests, usually retailing for $50, down into single tests and then selling them for up to $50 each.

They can get away with this because of the "Catch-22" created by new close contact definitions which restricted access to PCR testing (to shorten queues and bring down the waiting times for results) at a time when rapid antigen tests are almost impossible to obtain.

Under the COVID-19 test and isolate national protocols released on January 1 you can only have a PCR test if you are a close contact and have symptoms. This contradicts Mr Morrison's apparent assertion on Wednesday that asymptomatic close contacts are eligible for a PCR test.

If you are a close contact with no symptoms you should take a rapid antigen test "as soon as possible" and, if positive, stay at home for seven days. You have to take another rapid antigen test on day six. You can only have a PCR test (or a free rapid antigen test) at a testing clinic if you become symptomatic.

So, if one person in a household of, say, six people tests positive each of the other five needs at least two tests - which they have to pay for assuming they can even find some - before they can leave isolation. That could cost up to $500 at some of the prices being quoted on social media.

While the national cabinet decision to tweak the system by offering up to 10 free RAT tests to six million concession card holders through pharmacies will make life easier for some it does not address the supply issue. Nor does it do anything to encourage members of the broader community - presumed to have the capacity to pay whatever the market will bear - to take the necessary tests.

The only way to ensure potentially infectious, but asymptomatic, close contacts - of whom there are now probably millions - keep out of circulation is to fix the supply chain and distribute rapid antigen tests for free.

Similar criticisms can be made to the changes to testing requirements for truck drivers, essential workers, people seeking to enter a hospital, and the removal of the need for a positive RAT result to be confirmed by a PCR test. While these will relieve some of the pressure over time they will do little to alleviate what is a very immediate - and rapidly evolving - crisis.

While, as Mr Morrison says, the tests aren't a "silver bullet" the government needs to pull out all the stops given people are being turned away from PCR testing stations in their thousands, the ACT is now asking people to act as their own contact tracers, and state health officials are telling people across the country not to call an ambulance or to go to an ED unless they are in a really bad way.

The figures speak for themselves with, as of Wednesday, a total of 64,657 new cases being declared nationally. Of these 810 were in the ACT. Hospitalisations climbed to 2,530 and of these 362 were in intensive care.

Even if, as South Australian Premier Steven Marshall, has suggested Omicron hospitalisations level off at about 0.5 per cent rather than the original estimate of one per cent, "0.5 per cent of a very large number is still a very large number".

This crisis is far from over. People expect a lot more from their leaders than to just be told to "soldier on".

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