Rapid test rollout in B.C. picking up the pace

B.C. residents may finally get their hands on a COVID-19 rapid test, as the province announced next steps in its COVID-19 response.

However, when exactly is still undetermined. The province says millions more RATs are set to arrive soon.

B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix says in the coming days two million tests are expected, and 10 million more will follow but are not yet in transit.

B.C.’s schools will receive the bulk of the tests, with 3.8 million more kits being allocated to K to 12 schools, plus another 2.1 million for colleges and universities.

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“These allocations related to education mark an important shift, as students will be offered in the coming weeks the opportunity to take home one five-test kit for their and their family’s future use, if they were to become symptomatic,” he said.

The “broader community” will eventually receive free tests, but the details were not provided how they will be distributed.

Right now, the province says the priority remains high-risk groups like seniors.

However, only those with symptoms should get tested.

“That hasn’t changed. Increased test availability means that more members of the general population will be able to access tests to use to understand their own symptoms and illness and to take action to limit transmission to their friends, family and work, including those at higher risk,” Dix said.

Many have criticized the province’s response over rapid tests, comparing it to other jurisdictions in Canada where tests are readily available in pharmacies and grocery stores.

B.C. has long maintained that priority groups should have access to tests first and that many of the tests B.C. has can only be used by health care providers.

Health Canada states B.C. has only deployed 1.3 million of its 20 million tests as of Feb. 4, compared to Alberta which has deployed more than 7 million.

However, numbers from the health minister show a very different picture.

Dix says B.C. has received 15 million kits and deployed 7 million. There are just over 8 million tests remaining but more than 500,000 are not suitable for personal use and will be reserved to manage clusters. He says that leaves only 7.5 million tests in B.C. now to meet the needs.

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After schools, the highest amount will be sent to B.C. test sites, which were overwhelmed due to the Omicron variant and reached capacity for PCR tests. The province is urging only health care workers, first responders, pregnant people, and those with severe symptoms to be tested. About 720,000 rapid tests will be sent to test sites soon.

Acute care centres will receive an additional 200,000 tests, while long-term care centres will receive half that amount to test staff and visitors.