'Hunger games': Crowds, frustration in hunt for pop-up rapid COVID-19 tests

Ray Lai, Liberal candidate for MPP, said hundreds of people have lined up at a rapid test pop-up at Unionville GO Station

Yorkregion.com
Dec. 24, 2021
Jeremy Grimaldi

It began with an attempt to help a doctor friend keep his family and loved ones safe.

It ended with an experience for the ages, witnessing hundreds if not 1,000 people desperate for rapid COVID-19 tests, many of whom were left empty-handed.

Rai Lai, a Liberal candidate for MPP in Markham, said after receiving a call from a friend who is an ER room doctor, he was motivated to help get the man some COVID-19 tests to help him ensure his family and our hospitals are safe.

"Even if doctors and nurses have come into contact with people who have symptoms, they are still expected to come into work," he said, explaining medical staff only get tested before work if those loved ones have a positive test, something that these days is not too easy to access.

"They don't have tests to bring home. They want to protect the hospital and their families, but don't have the tools. And after working 12 hour shifts, nor do they have the time."

Although the LCBO is out of rapid test kits, the government has started setting up pop-up centres so people can access the tests. These pop-ups are listed here.

But when Lai went to Unionville GO Station to get some tests on Dec. 22 for his friend, what he witnessed shocked him.

After turning up at 5:55 a.m., he said he waited in line for an hour along with 500 to 1,000 people, many of whom were very tense.

"These tests are the toilet paper of 2021. There were elderly people, entire families," he said, explaining there were also plenty of special constables, positioned throughout to "keep the peace."

"The anxiety was palpable, you could cut the anxiety with a knife," Laid said. "I felt safer (with the special constables there), but I was anxious about what was going to happen."

After waiting an hour in the line -- a wait, which on Twitter, he mockingly called the "Hunger Games" -- he managed to get a kit, which contains five tests. The tension rose after they ran out of kits.

He went again on Dec. 23, which saw another 500 to 1,000 people waiting in long lines in -7 C temperatures. This time he brought nine friends, all of whom got kits for hospital staff.

He believes the confusion, shortages and hysteria could have been avoided had the government done a better job of listening to experts.

"It's disorganized and mostly unplanned and could have been avoided," he added.