B.C. one of the only provinces not making COVID-19 rapid tests widely available

As the highly transmissible Omicron variant takes hold, British Columbia is one of the only provinces not making rapid antigen tests widely available to the public.

As the highly transmissible Omicron variant takes hold, British Columbia is one of the only provinces not making rapid antigen tests widely available to the public.

Rapid tests can be administered at home and measure whether someone has COVID-19 and is likely to infect others. They return results in as little as 15 minutes.

B.C. has received three kinds of tests from the federal government: Abbott ID Now, Abbott PanBio and BD Veritor. None are packaged for use at home.

But some 700,000 testing kits could be deployed for individual use, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry has agreed, if boxes were broken down into smaller kits with extra swabs and solution, as Nova Scotia has done with BD Veritor tests.

As of Dec. 3, B.C. had sent out almost two million of the more than 3.2 million tests it had received from the federal government.

About 315,000 tests had actually been used.

Health Minister Adrian Dix said last week the province uses 35,000 tests weekly. The tests are currently available to select businesses, non-profits and charities through the province, and are being used in some remote communities where access to lab-based testing is limited.