Andalucian pharmacies finally restocked with antigen testing kits

Pharmacies throughout Andalucia have now reportedly been restocked with antigen testing kits

With the Christmas Eve and Christmas period over and done with, the shelves of pharmacies throughout Andalucia had been emptied of antigen testing kits. It became nigh on impossible to find any. Supplies were arriving daily, and, in most cases, were already gone after a few hours.

This avalanche in demand, combined with the shortage of product, and the rapid spread of the Omicron variant, has pushed the price of self-testing kits up.

Due to the lack of ‘stock’, the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products (AEMPS), dependent on the Ministry of Health, has issued temporary authorisation for Covid antigen tests for professional use, for sale in pharmacies to all citizens,

As SUR has seen first-hand, there are no longer any supply problems. The tests now available to pharmacies are similar to those for self-diagnosis, and have a nasal sample to facilitate its extraction.

A list of companies that meet these criteria, has been compiled by the AEMPS, given that, according to Health sources, the demand “has multiplied by more than 1,000”. One thing is that the demand for New Year’s Eve has been solved, and quite another is that its price increase has been solved.
As a spokesperson for the Andalucian pharmacist colleges points out, prices have “practically doubled”, due to the great demand. The providers of these self-diagnostic tests have increased the price that pharmacies must pay and, therefore, they will pass that on to users. This is because, unlike the price of masks, the price of antigen tests is not regulated.
With the mad rush for testing kits prior to New Year’s Eve over and done with, pharmacies should now, in January, hopefully, be able to cope with the daily demand, as long as supplies keep being delivered.

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