Calls grow for more COVID-19 rapid antigen tests to be made available in northern Ontario

With Christmas fast approaching, Lisa Letkemann is still trying to decide whether it would be safe to have a small dinner with immediate family members from different households over the holidays.

Letkemann said the only way she would feel safe at indoor social gatherings of 10 people or less, as per current Ontario government guidelines, is if everyone gets a COVID-19 test beforehand.

It's especially concerning for the physician based in Sioux Lookout because of how transmissible the new Omicron variant is, and the particular vulnerability of health-care systems in small communities and First Nations across northern Ontario.

"That's why the rapid testing immediately before gathering is so important — wanting to protect my family, but also to make sure that I am not a doctor passing it on to anyone else," said Letkemann.

But to get access to a free rapid antigen test before Christmas, Letkemann would have to make the nearly 400-kilometre drive along mostly two-lane highways from Sioux Lookout to Thunder Bay, the only city in northwestern Ontario that was selected by the province to distribute free tests to the public.

Letkemann and others are raising questions about how the government decided on the locations for test distribution, and there are growing calls for the province to provide more rapid tests in the north.

Ontario announces holiday 'testing blitz'

Ontario announced last Thursday it would be provide free rapid tests at 150 locations provincewide as part of a "holiday pop-up testing blitz."

There were 200,000 rapid tests distributed at select LCBO stores, beginning Dec. 17, according to an emailed statement from the LCBO's media team. Only four LCBOs were selected across all of northern Ontario — in Sudbury, North Bay, Sault Ste. Marie and Thunder Bay.

All of those test kits have been distributed. Reports across the province suggest several locations ran out of the kits within hours.

A number of pop-up locations will also provide an undisclosed number of rapid tests in Ontario, but only one site in northern Ontario is currently designated to distribute tests: the Intercity Shopping Centre in Thunder Bay, beginning at 9:30 a.m. ET on Friday.

"That's just not realistic to drive 10 hours round trip to pick up some test kits," Letkemann said, adding that driving conditions on northern highways are variable and can be dangerous in the winter.

The majority of sites to get free rapid tests during this "blitz" were in the Greater Toronto Area or near Ottawa, although rapid tests have also been made available across the province to schools, health-care organizations and select workplaces.

Calls for 'equitable' access to tests 

Dr. Sarah Newbery, a rural physician working in Marathon, about 300 kilometres east of Thunder Bay, says the fact the test kits were not more widely available to rural communities across northern Ontario is problematic.

"We need to be thinking first about how we ensure that we're getting resources to communities and to populations that are most vulnerable to illness and poor health outcomes," she said. "We need to have a way of ensuring that we're thinking about access for those populations so that they might have some equitable opportunity at health."

That could mean distributing rapid tests to Canada Post offices or public libraries, which are present in most rural communities across the north.

"Every household should have access to tests, and ideally we would be able to distribute them in a way that there's some guarantee of supply," Newbery added.

Both Newbery and Letkemann are calling on the province to immediately release more rapid tests to all parts of the province, not just to major urban centres.

Provincial NDP demands more rapid tests

That call has been echoed by the provincial New Democrats.

"They didn't give us anything," said Sol Mamakwa, NDP MPP for the Kiiwetinoong riding. "It feels like we were forgotten and they didn't even consider the north."

There are also calls for more support for remote First Nations, which are at greater risk of COVID-19 transmission because of overcrowding and housing shortages on reserve.

Neskantaga Chief Wayne Moonias recently told CBC News they only have one isolation unit available in the entire First Nation, and many houses have anywhere from six to 13 people living in each.

"When we talk about access to service, it shouldn't matter which part of Ontario you live in," said Mamakwa.

The provincial NDP party has called on the Ford government to release "tens of millions more rapid tests, and make them available in more places, as well as free by mail."

More testing, including in small, rural communities, will be essential to keeping people safe and addressing the rising wave of the Omicron variant, Mamakwa said.

Ontario says more tests are coming

In an emailed statement, a spokesperson with Ontario's Ministry of Health said the province has a limited supply of rapid tests, and every single test they've received from the federal government is being sent out to a wide variety of locations.

The statement said locations across the province were "identified by local health partners and businesses where higher traffic is anticipated over the holiday season and where vaccinated and unvaccinated people are likely to gather."

The province was expecting to receive about 10 million rapid tests from the federal government, but millions have been delayed, according to the statement.

The spokesperson said Ontario is "directly procuring rapid tests where possible," and more pop-up locations would become available on a weekly basis.

They did not say how many or if any of those sites would be located in northern, rural or remote communities.