B.C. to begin offering free at-home COVID-19 rapid tests for residents 70 and older

B.C. residents - particularly those ages 70 and older - will soon have far greater access to at-home rapid tests for COVID-19 than they had earlier on in the pandemic.

The provincial government announced Wednesday that it will soon begin providing rapid antigen tests to pharmacies for free distribution to B.C. seniors living in the community.

Roughly 865,000 tests have been provided to pharmacy distributors, and provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix's presentation during a news conference Wednesday afternoon indicated that they could begin appearing in pharmacies around B.C. by Friday.

Henry stressed that rapid tests are "a red light," not a green light. People should only test themselves for COVID-19 if they have symptoms, and should not consider a negative result a licence to ignore pandemic guidelines, the provincial health officer said.

The tests will be available free of charge for B.C. residents, though initially only those ages 70 and older will be able to pick up a pack of five tests.

The province plans to expand availability to younger age groups over time, with an estimated 12 million more tests expected to arrive in the province over the next four weeks.

Henry said she expected the availability of tests would be expanded to people of all ages over that time period, as long as the tests arrive as scheduled.

"We know there will be a lot of people who want them now, and as we get more and more available, they’ll be available to everybody, but we want to make sure it’s easy for those who are most at risk to get them first," Henry said.

She stressed that no one experiencing symptoms right now should be going into a pharmacy to get their tests. Other avenues for getting tested with a PCR test exist for those with symptoms who qualify.

"These are for people to have at home to use when they need to make a decision about what to do when they have symptoms in the future," Henry said.

The tests will be packaged for at-home use, and residents will need to show their BC Services Card at the pharmacy to get their tests.

A list of pharmacies distributing tests will be available on the BC Pharmacy Association's website, according to the province. 

Each person will be limited to one package of five tests every 28 days, to ensure access to the tests for as many B.C. residents as possible.

Picking up tests on behalf of another person will be allowed, according to the presentation, but the person picking up the tests must provide the intended recipient's name and date of birth, and have that person's BC Services Card on hand.

In Langley, Brookswood Pharmacy co-owner Shrief Ahmed said the business placed its order for the government-funded tests this week.

“Hopefully, they’re going to be here by the end of the month,” he said. “So, we’ll see what demand is going to be like when those come out.”

Ahmed said the pharmacy typically gets multiple calls each day asking about rapid tests, and though demand has waned a little, this past Saturday the store sold 34 boxes in seven hours.

“That was a little exceptional because we had a gentleman buying 25 packs for his company. He was a business owner,” Ahmed said. “Demand, as I said, it’s coming down a bit. I think people are anticipating or waiting for the government-funded ones.” 

Until recently, B.C. had used rapid antigen tests sparingly throughout the pandemic. While some provinces - particularly in Atlantic Canada - made them a focus of public health messaging during earlier waves, B.C. did not begin making them available to the general public until late December, when the Omicron wave overwhelmed the province's PCR testing capacity.

The province also recently began providing rapid tests to students in kindergarten through Grade 12 and at post-secondary institutions. 

Henry and Dix said in their presentation that the province's focus for rapid tests has been on using them in specific, high-risk populations, such as at long-term care facilities. 

Slides from Henry and Dix's presentation follow.