The other major national cabinet outcome - to give various concession card-holders access to up to 10 free RAT kits - has been criticised by health and disability groups as not providing enough access to the wider community and people who work in vulnerable settings.

RAT kits are already free in Tasmania for people identified as close contacts and as symptomatic by Public Health, to be collected from various distribution points. Australia Post outlets are proposed to soon act as these collection points.

Senior Tasmanian cabinet minister Michael Ferguson said Tasmania supported the decision to remove the requirement for a subsequent PCR test for positive RAT results.

"We're working through the detail of the national cabinet decision-making," he said.

"We're satisfied that that is the way forward.

READ MORE: Tasmanian disability workers test positive, 'grave concerns' for clients

"A rapid antigen test is going to be acceptable in terms of our public health response without requiring people to have an additional test."

PCR testing would continue to be used, Mr Ferguson said.

"[PCR testing] will continue to play an important part on the regime of track and tracing. The rapid antigen testing has been demonstrated as an appropriate test for people who have been identified as close contacts," he said.

READ MORE: One-in-50 Tasmanians could get COVID within a week, Public Health says

"That is the two-pronged approach which we'll be using going forward, it's an appropriate use of resources and it's a smart way for us to make sure that people who need a test can get one."

Anyone who tests positive to a rapid antigen test must register their result via the government's coronavirus website on the Public Health hotline. Those who recorded positive RAT results in recent days will also be able to report their case. This proof will be needed for financial assistance requests.

Public and private PCR testing sites across Tasmania continued to experience overwhelming demand on Thursday morning, while availability of RAT kits for purchase has been limited. Concerns have also been raised about price gouging.

Australian Medical Association Tasmania president Helen McArdle said they wanted to see RAT kits free and much more widely available, particularly for those working in vulnerable settings.

"We think the plan to roll them out through post offices is good for people with symptoms, but there's still concern about people working in vulnerable settings, and if they can test themselves before entering those settings," she said.

"If you're working, you wouldn't quality for those concessions to get a free test.

"We don't want people putting off doing a test because they can't afford it, and therefore potentially exposing not only the vulnerable, but the general public to the risk."

Tasmanian disability advocate Jane Wardlaw said the matter "hasn't been well considered".

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"My solution to the problem in a disability setting is that the NDIS should be allowing people to use their NDIS funds to purchase the RAT kits," she said.

"But then there's also a number of people who don't live with complex disability who aren't NDIS participants, and that becomes problematic for them.

"At the moment, it just seems to be policy on the hop."

The use of Australia Post outlets as distribution points has been criticised by the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union Tasmania which claimed workers were not consulted, and could be at risk by being put on the frontline in a health response.

On Wednesday, Public Health director Mark Veitch said he expected RAT kits to play a much greater role in COVID diagnosis in the coming weeks, and for some diagnoses to occur without testing, but by assessing symptoms.

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