Sydney, Aug 29 (IANS): From Monday, pensioners and other concession card holders in Australia's New South Wales (NSW) state will be able to access up to 10 free Covid rapid antigen tests (RATs).

"Although we are heading out of winter, the risk of Covid-19 remains and we want to ensure RATs are easily accessible for pensioners and concession card holders," Victor Dominello, minister for customer service and digital government of the NSW government, said on Monday.

Under the new programme, which will run until the end of October, those eligible mainly include such groups as pensioners, veterans and people with low income, reports Xinhua news agency.

"This builds upon our earlier commitment to pick up the Federal Government's Concessional Access Program, which it dropped at the end of last month," said NSW Minister for Multiculturalism and Minister for Seniors Mark Coure.

A factsheet from the country's Department of Health showed that from January to July of this year, the Australian government launched a temporary RAT concessional access scheme, allowing concession card holders 20 free tests over the six-month period.

By Monday morning, Australia has recorded 9,976,582 confirmed cases and 13,648 deaths, as the seven-day moving average of daily increase nears 12,000 cases per day.