COVID rapid test kits will be available at B.C. pharmacies
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...
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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.
People will need to have symptoms in order to qualify to get the test kits and those at higher risk are still encouraged to get the PCR tests.
There have already been 865,000 test kits distributed to pharmacies 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.
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.
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