RAT race in Markham creates 'feeding frenzy’ over rapid antigen tests

Situation ‘nothing short of shameful’, says resident

Yorkregion.com
Jan. 17, 2022
Heidi Riedner

For the second time in two months, line-ups were long and formed early with Markham residents eager to get their hands on a rapid antigen test during a three-day blitz at Markville Mall from Jan. 10 to 12.

The Markville pop-up was among the high-traffic locations including malls, libraries and transit hubs used by the government to distribute the rapid tests through its so-called “holiday blitz” started in December in an effort to help curb transmission and “provide an additional layer of protection” from the highly contagious Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus.

Only 1,000 kits -- limited to one per person -- were available per day. Some complained of disorganized lines and multiple family members lining up for kits.

Markham’s population of some 350,000 residents had their first crack at the free kits just before Christmas at the Unionville GO station.

Resident Eardley Adams, who was among the huge crowd at the GO station, criticized the rollout as “nothing short of shameful.”

“The crowd was huge when I arrived. It resembled a crowd at Jurassic Park rather than a distribution center for a much-needed medical aid,” he said, adding the 1,000-kit per day limit is ridiculous for a city the size of Markham.

“Who on earth is organizing this? Our provincial government boasts we have an ample supply of these kits, every child at school is provided a kit, but what I experienced was more like feeding time at the ranch, and we were the cattle.”

Adams said if the kits are so available and plentiful, as the Ford Government states, then they should be distributed in an orderly fashion through the mail so every family gets one kit within a week or two rather than treating people like cattle.

“And for those who need them urgently, they should be able to pick it up with a doctor's note from their local pharmacy, not the LCBO,” he said. “It’s a medical aid, not booze. There are far more pharmacies than there are LCBOs."

Although rapid tests have been distributed for free for months to businesses for their employees, they currently cost around $40 each at a pharmacy.

Ontario has distributed over 45.8 million rapid tests to settings such as schools, hospitals and workplaces.

A total of 11 million tests were given to public school students ahead of their holiday break.

A positive test does not equate to a diagnosis of COVID-19, however, according to public health. Anyone who receives a package of tests to take home and gets a positive result must self-isolate and book a lab-based polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test at a testing site to confirm the result.

Any location that performs on-site rapid antigen screening will also offer a confirmatory PCR test for individuals who receive a positive antigen result.