Covid Rapid Tests

 


Late last week we heard the Ontario Science Table state that now is the time to start asymptomatic self-testing for Covid using something called a rapid test kit. Some jurisdictions like the UK have been handing out these rapid tests for free for some time now. The kits are 95% accurate. It would seem, however, that the test kits that Ottawa gave to Ontario to give out for free have mostly been just sitting around on shelves somewhere. Ford says Ontario has given out more free kits than any other province but that’s a meaningless statement since Ontario is Canada’s most populous province. He said that school age kids would get to take some home to use over the Christmas break and that other kits have been given to businesses to test employees. We’ll see.

But for most of us a Covid test means a trip to the pharmacy where a kit costs $40. Now that a high percentage of the population is vaccinated and the latest variant is more virulent (spreads quicker) the chances that we have the virus but no symptoms (asymptomatic) is increased. So increasing testing makes sense. I would want to know that I tested negative before visiting my 92 year old mother. She is also vaccinated but for her, even a mild case can have severe impacts on her health.

According to the federal government Ontario has used under 10 million of the 31.3 million tests they made available and there is no evidence that the PCs have spent another penny on tests themselves. What it sounds like, again, is Ford playing games with our health and well-being. It sounds like typical PC bumbling, mumbling ineptitude. What? Give something away for free! Where’s the business case in that? It just doesn’t fit their paradigm.

“Every Ontarian should be able to take a free at-home rapid test — before visiting elderly loved ones or going to crowded holiday shopping malls,” said NDP Finance critic Catherine Fife (Waterloo). “And everyday people know that’s not what’s happening in Ontario right now. Charging $40 a pop is a barrier. Ford is putting his big business buddies ahead of public health again,” said Fife. “If the NDP were the government right now, we’d make rapid tests free, and make sure families could easily pick up take-home tests.”

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