Matt Hayward created the Find A RAT website during his holidays.
As RATs are becoming harder and harder to find and PCR tests take up your entire day, one man developed a website to help Australian’s locate RATs near them.
A Melbourne-based software developer spent his Christmas holidays creating a helpful website to locate RATs. Well, some of his holidays. Apparently, it only took him about 6 hours.
Like many others, Matt and his partner wanted to make sure they were COVID free before spending their holidays with loved ones, to make sure they wouldn’t pass the virus on.
After struggling to get her hands on a single test, Matt’s girlfriend Liv McDonald was forced to ask her friend for spares.
“My partner [Liv] … was like, ‘Matt, you should build this site’. So I can’t really claim the credit myself,” the founder of FindaRat.com.au Matt Hayward told SBS.
The website works based on information submitted by the users. People can confirm where rapid antigen tests are available or advise if they are in low supply.
Users are then provided with a map of where they live and where they can purchase RATs.
The 24-year-old launched his website on Monday and said 8,000 reports have already been made on the site and 1.2 million users have visited it, looking for RATs.
“I’m on holiday, so Monday morning I woke up at home and whipped it up and launched the site the same day.”
“There have been lots of comments from people being like, ‘I’ve been able to see my parents in nursing homes’ and ‘I’ve been able to get one and travel interstate to see my son that I haven’t seen for a year,’” he said.
“I think, ideally, anyone should be able to get a test.”
Matt has added a hyperlink on the website that says “Buy Me A Coffee” to raise funds and cover the costs for bandwidth and other fees.
“I woke up to a $2,500 bill one morning, so I made a few changes to reduce that but all the people ‘buying a coffee’ to support those costs definitely helps out and helps it be a free resource.”
“All those funds go back into just keeping the site running.”
It’s lucky for us Aussies that there are legends like Matt out there, considering Scotty and the rest of our government refuse to make this pandemic a little easier.
Visit FindARat.com.au to locate your nearest test.
