Premier Doug Ford defends approach to distributing rapid tests as Omicron spreads

Premier Doug Ford has defended Ontario's approach to distributing COVID-19 rapid tests in the midst of growing calls to make them more widely available as cases rise and the new Omicron variant spreads.

"There's no one that's handing out more tests than we are. Matter of fact, we're doing 57 per cent of all rapid tests in the entire country. So we're handing out more tests than every province and territory combined," Ford said at an announcement in Peterborough on Wednesday. 

A spokeswoman for the province's health minister said Ontario currently has 5.75 million rapid antigen tests in its inventory, and as of Nov. 29, 33.35 million had been handed out.

By comparison, British Columbia has received 3.2 million tests and deployed 1.17 million and in Quebec, 11.7 million tests have been received and 5.71 milion have been given out, according to federal data.

"We're giving out about a million tests every single week," Ford said. "Those are staggering numbers."