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February 23, 2022 - 3:07 PM
The B.C. government is expanding the availability of COVID rapid tests.
They’re now going to be available to the general public through pharmacies but there are some caveats, according to Ministry of Health documents released to the media today, Feb. 23.
The focus still remains on having the tests available for people more at risk of serious illness or death from COVID, where a positive test would affect treatment, or where they work or live with others who are at high risk of extreme illness.
"These are for people to have at home to make a decision on what to do in the future,” provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said during a news briefing today.
People who have symptoms now still need to go to testing sites to get PCR tests if they quality or rapid tests.
There have already been 865,000 test kits distributed to pharmacy distribution centres that can be picked up as early as Friday, Feb. 25. The Rapid Antigen Test kits will have five tests in each.
READ MORE: COVID-19: A timeline of the pandemic and how it changed our lives over the past two years
Initially they will go to people 70 years and older but will be available to younger people as more become available.
Dr. Henry said she expects they will be available for everyone of all ages within three to four weeks, if the province receive all they kits they expect to get. They can be used if there are outbreaks or clusters in communities or if COVID relieves in the future, not necessarily right now.
The kits are free but, in order to make sure more people have access to them, each person can only get one kit every 28 days.
People can pick up the kits for others but have to have the other person’s B.C. Services card with them at the time.
To date, B.C. has received 22.2 million tests and distributed 14.9 million. Another 12 million kits are expected to arrive in B.C. over the next four weeks.
People who get positive test results can see what to do here or report the tests to health authorities here.
— This story was updated at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2022, to add more clarity on what the test kits can be used for and to provide links to health authorities.
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