Manitoba to provide take-home, self-administered rapid COVID-19 tests to certain people

With demand for COVID-19 tests at an all-time high, Manitoba is making take-home, self-administered rapid tests available at provincial testing sites, as well as for vulnerable people.

The type of test will now be based on a person's vaccination status, Health Minister Audrey Gordon said in a news release on Monday.

The rapid testing changes will be introduced incrementally at testing sites throughout Manitoba, with three in Winnipeg — Nairn Avenue, King Edward Street and Research Road — as well as the Easton Drive location in Selkirk, which already offers rapid testing.

"The centralized use of rapid test kits is necessary to manage the supply we have in stock," Gordon said in the release.

"Making take-home, self-administered rapid tests available to symptomatic Manitobans who seek a COVID-19 test will help manage the potential demand of tests when the Omicron variant of concern becomes more prominent."

The type of test will now be based on a person's vaccination status, the province says.

Symptomatic and vaccinated people will receive a take-home, self-administered rapid test, but some will be randomly selected for a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test — the kind normally provided at testing sites — as a control measure.

Symptomatic and unvaccinated people will continue to receive a PCR test.

A symptomatic, high-risk and unvaccinated person may receive a PCR test as well as a take-home, self-administered rapid test and may receive further treatment.

This comes in the wake of the provincial backlog to process COVID-19 specimens reaching 10,000 on Christmas Eve.

The expected turnaround time to receive results of a COVID-19 test in Manitoba is estimated to be at least four days.

To help prioritize testing, Manitobans who seek a COVID-19 test for out-of-province travel should seek out a private provider, the province says.

The province says it will also distribute more than 15,000 test kits to 20 Manitoba Families social services offices across the province starting later this week.

An additional 1,764 kits will be provided directly to Community Living Disability Services clients.