Canada is in crisis when it comes to PCR testing, says federal health minister

CBC.ca
Jan. 13, 2022

Federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos says Canada is in crisis when it comes to COVID-19 PCR testing capacity, even as the federal government struggles to make good on its promise to deliver 140 million rapid tests to provinces by the end of the month.

Duclos says access to PCR tests in provinces is a crisis, and that's why at-home rapid tests will be such an important tool to combat the Omicron wave of COVID-19.

But some provinces have flagged that shipments of those vital rapid tests from the federal government have been slow to arrive.

"Alberta Health has learned that the expected supply of at-home rapid COVID-19 tests has been delayed from the federal government and manufacturers," Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta's chief medical officer of health, said Tuesday on Twitter.

In Ontario for example, fewer than 0.3 per cent of the rapid tests committed to the province in January have been delivered so far, and there is no delivery scheduled for about 80 per cent of them.

However, Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce announced on Wednesday that students and staff in Ontario schools and child-care settings will each get two rapid COVID-19 tests after schools return to in-person learning on Monday.

Tests will be distributed starting next week first to staff, then to children in daycares and students in public elementary schools, followed by high school students.

Provincial officials say more tests will be provided when supply allows.

Federal Procurement Minister Filomena Tassi says the provinces' demand for the tests has increased drastically since last year, while the market has become very competitive. She says the government is working with 14 suppliers to secure the tests that were promised by the end of the month.

Manitoba Health says it's been told by Ottawa the province is allotted five million tests a month. A recent shipping notice confirmed it would get a total of 700,000 devices for January. It has already received 132,000.

"The premier and prime minister also had discussions in December and again this week, in which the premier stressed the need for additional rapid tests for Manitoba," said the department in a statement.

N.S., Yukon shift approach to testing
In Nova Scotia, Premier Tim Houston said the province is distributing 830,000 rapid tests a week, which he said is almost a test for every person in the province.

Chief Medical Officer Dr. Robert Strang said there continues to be confusion and anger around the changes in the province's testing strategy since the Omicron variant arrived in Nova Scotia. He said given the amount of virus in the province, there is no need to identify every case of COVID-19.

Strang said rapid tests need to be used more efficiently, as there are currently just over one million tests in the province.

"We ask for your patience while we rebuild our testing supply," he said, adding that 3.6 million more tests were on the way.

In Yukon, officials said on Wednesday that they have also had to shift their approach to testing due to the rapid rise in cases. For now, PCR tests will be available only to high-risk individuals with symptoms.

For everyone else, "The most important thing that you need to know is that if you have symptoms, you should assume you have COVID-19 and follow the recommendations for isolation,"  said Yukon Health Minister Tracy-Anne McPhee.

The territory says it received a shipment of 50,000 rapid antigen tests from the federal government on Saturday and that they are being made available at a drive-thru location in Whitehorse. McPhee said Yukon is expecting to receive more rapid tests in the coming weeks.