‘That urgency is not there’: Half-million B.C. COVID rapid test kits picked up so far

Months after many pushed for access to at-home COVID rapid tests in B.C. and nearly a month after they began actually being available, only a fraction of the kits sent out to pharmacies have been picked up.

Health Minister Adrian Dix says 548,000 British Columbians have picked up their free boxes of tests from community pharmacies. At least four million five-test kits have been sent out for distribution.

The greatest proportion of the distributed tests have gone to people aged 70 and up, as they had access first. Dix says the uptake has been about what they expected.

About 800,000 boxes have also gone or are going out to elementary and secondary schools. Nearly 400,000 are being sent to post-secondary institutions.

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Vancouver physician Dr. Anna Wolak thinks the sense of urgency for COVID rapid tests is gone.

“Everybody was clamoring for rapid tests, partly because all the other provinces were getting it and we weren’t. So there’s that sense of ‘Why aren’t we getting it?’ Plus … the case numbers in December were astronomical and there were a lot of gatherings that were happening then.”

She adds people also wanted to test themselves before gathering with loved ones over the holidays, when the Omicron variant shot case numbers through the roof.

“People wanted to use them as the ‘green light, red light’ to go to gatherings. Now that urgency is not there.”

Despite complaints that people wanted access earlier in winter, Minister Dix says B.C.’s rapid test rollout was only weeks behind other provinces’ and while cases are lulling now, those tests will still be needed.

“This is still a pandemic. It’s going to be a pandemic before us for some time. The issue isn’t whether people use them tomorrow. It’s whether people have them and use them when they need to,” he said.

Wolak thinks people should consider a future need for these tests.

“People like myself and my friends, we’ve picked up ours when we became eligible for it, mostly because we’re kind of stocking up and making sure that when school starts or if we do get this wave that Dr. Tam has spoken about. Even Dr. Henry has alluded to that there may be a rise in cases. When people start getting symptoms, then at least we have that on hand so that there’s not that panic at the end.”