Ottawa will stop providing COVID-19 rapid tests to regions

The Canadian government plans to stop supplying provinces and territories with free COVID-19 rapid tests, which has an infection control epidemiologist worried about two-tiered health care, increased spread and increased health-care costs.

"The federal government continues to support Canada's rapid testing needs while the federal inventory remains," Health Canada spokesperson Nicholas Janveau told CBC News.

"That said, rapid test programming was and continues to be a provincial/territorial responsibility."

Ottawa currently has about 70 million of the tests, which people can use at home to screen for the virus. About 3.6 million of these have already expired and are ineligible for distribution.

The tests usually come in boxes of five, which would mean an inventory of just over 13 million test kits.

Canada's estimated population, as of Jan. 1, is nearly 41 million, according to Statistics Canada.

While Health Canada has authorized extending the shelf life of some rapid tests, all of the tests in the federal inventory will expire by December, said Janveau.

"Given the current COVID-19 outlook, inventory levels, and indicated testing demands, the federal government does not anticipate the need for additional federal procurements at this time," he said in an emailed statement.

Infection control epidemiologist Colin Furness, a self-described "early and strong proponent of rapid tests," who has spent years saying more resources are needed to fight the pandemic, said he's not surprised Ottawa wants to "get out of the testing game" and doesn't blame the federal government since health care is a provincial and territorial responsibility.

The problem, said Furness, is that if the jurisdictions don't step up to provide free, or at least subsidized tests, people will be forced to buy them if they want to know whether they're COVID-positive and should take measures to prevent transmission. And this creates a divide.

"Public health should not be based on your ability to pay," said Furness, an associate professor at the University of Toronto.

Some people can afford to buy rapid tests, available at some pharmacies, stores and online for about $7 plus tax per test, but "many can't."

"I think we should be very cognizant that rapid tests are part of what makes us healthy. It's part of health care. It's a diagnostic [tool] and it just doesn't make sense to commodify it," said Furness. "It's just going to create sickness and sickness is expensive for everybody."

At least one province is mulling the future of its COVID-19 rapid point-of-care testing program. Last week, New Brunswick said demand for the tests has declined steadily since last fall, and the province is "determining next steps."