Shipments of millions of rapid COVID-19 antigen tests to Alberta delayed

A restock in rapid COVID-19 antigen test kits for Albertans to use at home and in schools has been delayed.

In a provincial data update on Tuesday, Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw said expected supply from both the federal government and manufacturers will be late.

On Wednesday, Health Minister Jason Copping said Alberta has not received the 4.3 million rapid tests it expected from the federal government in December and has only gotten 500,000 in January.

The provincial government promised to deliver tests, as well as medical-grade masks, to schools before Jan. 14 – the end of the first week students were back in classrooms.

"As of January 11, we’ve shipped nearly 1.7 million rapid tests to schools, about 40% of the initial commitment of 4.3 million tests for this week.," Copping wrote.

"We’re working to confirm delivery of the remainder by the end of the week, from the federal government and/or from our own supply."

The province's own supply, however, is also delayed, Copping added. Alberta purchased nearly 14 million rapid tests and has received one million, but it doesn't know when it will get the rest.

"We're encountering delays from our suppliers as well due to the pressure on the global supply chain."

Copping hopes to receive 4.8 million tests from that agreement this week to send to schools and health-care workers.

During a press conference Wednesday morning, Canada's procurement and public services minister said rapid antigen tests have become harder to get.

"Up until the beginning of January, we had procured and delivered every test that provinces and territories were asking for. Of course, with the onset of Omicron in December, those requests escalated," Filomena Tassi told reporters.

"This is a very competitive market, and there are issues with respect to the supply chain. And those deal with issues of labour, issues of accessing raw materials, and also the cargo planes and getting the transportation."

She promised Canada was doing everything it could to procure more tests. To date, the federal government has obtained an estimated 426 million rapid antigen tests.

On Monday, Hinshaw announced another reduction of the list of people eligible to get a free polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test through the province, emphasizing Alberta's limited lab capacity and the number of at-home positive results that go unconfirmed by the province underscore the accuracy of Alberta's active case count.

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“In previous waves we’ve seen a range … catching one in four cases, about one in six in the fourth wave. I think it would be a very conservative estimate to say we’re one in 10 or greater at this point in time in the number of cases we are catching," Hinshaw told reporters.

On Wednesday, COVID-19 hospitalizations in Alberta continued to grow. There are more than 61,000 known active cases.