Canada must be ‘practical’ on school rapid testing amid U.S. supply crunch: advocates

Some provinces in Canada are announcing strategies involving rapid testing to protect children from COVID-19 in schools as they await a childhood vaccine.

As more Canadian provinces unveil rapid COVID-19 testing strategies in schools, some advocates say those measures must be “practical” as the United States deals with a supply crunch.

Down south, several companies producing and shipping rapid tests to countries around the world, including Canada, are feeling a supply pinch due to demand from U.S. employers.

To ensure kits aren’t wasted then, provinces must have targeted strategies in place, said Dr. Anna Banerji, a pediatric infectious disease specialist with the University of Toronto’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine.

“We need to be careful where we use it to make sure it’s used in the right scenario,” she said. “If there’s a location where there’s a very high rate of COVID or there’s an outbreak actively going on in a school, then it might help.”

Ontario and Alberta were the latest provinces to join the rapid test school strategy on Tuesday, announcing “targeted” programs in those settings.

Dr. Kieran Moore, Ontario’s chief medical officer of health, said rapid tests will be made available at a local medical officer of health’s discretion, based on “local epidemiological circumstances.”

That’s a good way to think, Banerji said.

“But I think to use it in areas where there’s very low prevalence of COVID and an outbreak is not going on, or there’s very few cases, then you’re wasting the test, basically.”