![Ottawa stops sending rapid COVID-19 tests to provinces as millions set to expire](https://globalnews.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/20230228110216-63fe2902b0523af236e4ae1djpeg.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&w=720&h=379&crop=1)
Ottawa stops sending rapid COVID-19 tests to provinces as millions set to expire
Global News
Health Canada said about 80,000 rapid tests in the federal inventory are set to expire within six months and 6.5 million within the year.
The federal government has stopped shipping rapid COVID-19 antigen tests to provinces as millions are set to expire within the year, and experts say the once-essential tool has lost its importance in the pandemic.
There are 90 million rapid tests in the federal inventory, Health Canada said in an email. About 80,000 of those are set to expire within six months and 6.5 million within the year. The rest expire within two years.
“Canada has robust inventories and is well prepared for COVID response,” Anne Genier, with Health Canada, said in an email.
Ottawa has ordered more than 811 million rapid tests since the beginning of the pandemic with a price tag of about $5 billion. About 680 million of those went to provinces and territories.
As the fourth wave of the pandemic gripped the country near the end of 2021, every region was trying to get as many of the tests as possible. Hospitals were overwhelmed in many provinces and the rapid antigen tests became a critical part of the response.
Mahesh Nagarajan, a professor at the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business, said it’s a different situation two years later.
“I don’t think we should be buying any more of them right now,” Nagarajan, whose focus area is on supply chains, said in a recent interview.
Nagarajan said Canada now has several qualified and dependable suppliers for the tests. The government has established standing offers with the companies for the supply and delivery on an as-needed basis