Health Minister Christine Elliott is set to announce Wednesday that Ontario will make millions of rapid-antigen tests available to the public through grocery stores and pharmacies. Government officials speaking on background with reporters say that the province will provide up to 5.5 million tests (or 1.1 million boxes) per week through retail outlets — depending on the demand for rapid tests in high-risk settings, such as hospitals, long-term care homes, and education and child-care settings.
The government anticipates that the program will last at least eight weeks and that a total of up to 44 million tests will be made available to the public.
The province is also targeting a number of high-priority communities, primarily but not exclusively in the GTA, in areas with a higher proportion of racialized or marginalized communities and in areas where there has historically been higher prevalence of COVID-19.
Households will be allowed to collect one box per visit at a participating retailer, though government officials confirmed they are not asking retailers to register customers or to otherwise enforce a limit to keep customers from returning to the same retailer multiple times or from visiting multiple retailers repeatedly. Retailers may, however, choose to use online portals or other means to keep demand orderly, and the government is asking Ontarians not to hoard the tests.
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