B.C. ramping up rapid test rollout as COVID-19 cases surge

The B.C. government plans to expand its inventory and distribution of rapid COVID-19 tests in the province, as the Omicron variant of concern surges across the country.

Health officials announced the province's plans to ramp up test distribution at a live conference Tuesday, when new health orders were also announced.

The province says it has purchased and requested increasingly large shipments of rapid antigen test kits, with about 2.6 million expected to be distributed over the next month.

Many of those kits, about 700,000, will go to testing sites across the province for people who are exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19.

The remaining rapid tests will go to particularly vulnerable groups starting in late December.

These groups include long-term care facilities, health-care workers, and "rural, remote, Indigenous and vulnerable communities."

The tests will be prioritized for these groups until approximately mid-January, at which point more tests are expected to become available.

MID-TERM PLANS

Starting in mid-January, the province expects to have about 11 million rapid tests available.

Seven million of those tests will be reserved for public health and health authorities so that regions can deploy tests as necessary for community management.

Meanwhile, 500,000 of the tests will be earmarked for the K-12 system to be deployed to schools if transmission occurs.

Another 500,000 tests will be reserved for post-secondary institutions, according to health officials.

The remaining approximately three million kits will go towards the same groups that were prioritized at the start, such as long-term care facilities, health care staff, and rural, remote and Indigenous communities.

Dec. 21, 2021: (Province of B.C.)

As of Dec. 15, the province has received a total of 3,197,306 rapid antigen tests, of which 1,266,513 have been distributed.

The province has been using about 35,000 tests per week under its current policies.

When asked why B.C. hasn’t' been distributing tests as quickly as other provinces, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said the province was focused on using tests where they are most effective.

She said there was concern that tests would be "rapidly taken up by people who can access them" if they were offered widely, instead of being saved for people who needed them most.

She added that other jurisdiction that have been handing out more rapid tests haven't been able to avoid this most recent wave of the pandemic as well. 

Health officials say that 200,000 tests provided by the federal government will arrive by the end of the year, while another 500,000 tests that were purchased by the province will arrive by late December.

Health officials say that the federal government has purchased 84 million rapid tests which are slated to arrive in mid- to late January.

B.C. has requested at least 13.5 per cent of those tests, or about 11 million, though the federal government has not confirmed what the exact distribution across the country will be yet.

Dec. 21, 2021: (Province of B.C.)The province says it will monitor the effectiveness of the expanded rapid testing policy, with potential modifications coming in late January or early February.

Health officials stress that rapid testing is only one tool to combat the newest pandemic wave, and that previous health guidelines should still be followed.

On Tuesday, health officials also outlined the latest health measures – such as the temporary closure of bars, clubs, and indoor organized events – as well as the latest data on booster shots in the province.