Rapid tests arrive in Alberta but won’t be utilized yet

By GILLIAN SLADE on October 29, 2020.

gslade@medicinehatnews.com@MHNGillianSlade

The first shipment of COVID-19 tests that can give results in just 15 minutes are already being distributed to provinces.

About a week ago the first 100,000 ID Now tests purchased by the federal government from Abbott Diagnostics arrived in Canada. The purchase agreement is for a total of 7.9 million tests.

A spokesperson for Health Canada says 80 per cent of the tests are being distributed to provinces and territories on a per capita basis in October. The remaining 20 per cent will be dispatched to areas where there is a hot spot or for federal use in northern and remote Indigenous communities.

A Health Canada spokesperson expected the full October allocation to be received by last Monday and then re-directed to provinces and territories, including Alberta, within a matter of days.

Alberta will not start using the tests immediately though.

Tom McMillan, assistant director communication for Alberta Health, says Alberta is still evaluating the performance of the tests.

“This is critical work for understanding the most appropriate scenarios in which these tests should be used in Alberta.”

McMillan was not able to comment on whether these tests would potentially be used at Calgary’s airport for the pilot testing program, which could further reduce the time of isolation for travellers if they did not have to wait two days for a test result.

The first 1 million Panbio tests have arrived in Canada and shipments to jurisdictions began Oct. 22, said a spokesperson for Health Canada. The remaining 2 million are expected to arrive over the next 2 weeks, and will be shipped from Abbott to the various jurisdictions.

Earlier this year Canada acquired 5,500 Spartan Bioscience hand-held COVID-19 tests kits that could provide results within an hour. They were to be used primarily in rural areas.

In early May, Alberta Health Services said it was returning the nine devices it had received and had been working to validate before using in clinical settings. AHS cited concerns about the efficacy of the tests.

Spartan had accepted a voluntary recall and said it was “performing additional clinical studies to assess the sampling method and proprietary swab.”