Pandemic expert group to issue recommendations on COVID-19 rapid tests in Ontario
Science experts advising Ontario on the pandemic are set to release new recommendations on rapid testing, with one of the group's leaders saying it makes sense to use the tests more often.
Dr. Peter Juni, the scientific director of Ontario's COVID-19 Science Advisory Table, said the group plans to publish a science brief on the issue Wednesday. The group's communications director later said it would be published in the coming days.
There have been growing calls for the tests to be made more widely available as COVID-19 cases rise. While it's still unclear how they perform with the new Omicron variant, Juni said they are effective with the Delta variant that accounts for the bulk of Ontario's cases.
"It makes sense from a scientific perspective to use rapid tests more frequently, for example, schools, in workplaces, in congregate settings, and to make rapid tests more available in this province," Juni said in an interview.
Opposition legislators have been calling for the province to distribute rapid tests more broadly, particularly in schools.
Rapid tests are currently offered for free to businesses, and also sold in some pharmacies for asymptomatic people who have not been in contact with a confirmed case.
They have also been distributed in schools in areas of high transmission for students with COVID-19 symptoms or considered a close contact of a confirmed case. The government has also said it plans to send all students home with five rapid tests over the December holidays.
But aside from that holiday plan, rapid tests have not been made available to all students, though families across the province have sought access to them.
Health Minister Christine Elliott said Tuesday that Ontarians have access to some form of COVID-19 testing for free in most cases.
"The only time we're really asking people to pay for tests is if they need it for purposes of travel, which I think is fair," she said.
Ontario offers free PCR testing to those with COVID-19 symptoms, close contacts of a case and members of certain groups. Those tests are available at assessment centres and pharmacies, among other locations, and the province says most results are ready in 48 hours.
Results from most rapid tests are available in about 15 minutes, according to the province.
A spokeswoman for the minister said the province currently has 5.75 million rapid antigen tests in its inventory, and as of Nov. 29, has handed out 33.35 million.
Ontario has been distributing about a million tests each week and is ramping up during the holiday period, Alexandra Hilkene said. That includes 11 million tests earmarked for public and First Nation schools and tests that will be sent to pop-up sites in higher-risk areas, she said.
Ontario's top doctor, Dr. Kieran Moore, said the province is working with the federal government to broaden its testing strategy, and expects to make an announcement on the increased availability of tests in the coming weeks.
Liberal Leader John Fraser said more rapid tests should be handed out, particularly in the winter months, which have typically seen infections rise.
"I'm still bewildered as to why millions and millions of rapid tests are sitting in warehouses unused, undistributed, when jurisdictions across the world who use rapid tests, they're giving them to families, they're giving them to people at airports," he said. "It's just another tool to protect us."
NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said Monday the tests should be free for everyone.
"Nobody should have to pay for a rapid test. That should be part of our public health-care system," she said.
-- with files from Maan Alhmidi.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 7, 2021.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
NEW After hearing thousands of last words, this hospital chaplain has advice for the living
Hospital chaplain J.S. Park opens up about death, grief and hearing thousands of last words, and shares his advice for the living.
BREAKING Police cordon off Iran consulate in Paris where man threatens to blow himself up: French media
French police cordoned off the Iranian consulate in Paris on Friday, where a man was threatening to blow himself up, Europe 1 radio and BFM TV.
Some Canadian families will receive up to $620 per child today
More money will land in the pockets of some Canadian families on Friday for the latest Canada Child Benefit installment.
BREAKING Iran fires at apparent Israeli attack drones near Isfahan air base and nuclear site
An apparent Israeli drone attack on Iran saw troops fire air defences at a major air base and a nuclear site early Friday morning near the central city of Isfahan, an assault coming in retaliation for Tehran's unprecedented drone-and-missile assault on the country.
American millionaire Jonathan Lehrer denied bail after being charged with killing Canadian couple
American millionaire Jonathan Lehrer, one of two men charged in the killings of a Canadian couple in Dominica, has been denied bail.
Ottawa to force banks to call carbon rebate a carbon rebate in direct deposits
Canadian banks that refuse to identify the carbon rebate by name when doing direct deposits are forcing the government to change the law to make them do it, says Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault.
Ontario woman loses $15,000 to fake Walmart job scam
A woman who recently moved to Canada from India was searching for a job when she got caught in an online job scam and lost $15,000.
After COVID, WHO defines disease spread 'through air'
The World Health Organization and around 500 experts have agreed for the first time on what it means for a disease to spread through the air, in a bid to avoid the confusion early in the COVID-19 pandemic that some scientists have said cost lives.
Prince Harry formally confirms he is now a U.S. resident
Prince Harry, the son of King Charles III and fifth in line to the British throne, has formally confirmed he is now a U.S. resident.