TORONTO -- Ontario's Ministry of Health has ordered several agencies to stop supplying rapid antigen COVID-19 tests to parents, as a growing number of them sought the tests to create their own surveillance testing programs in schools.
Officials with two agencies tasked with distributing rapid tests from the federally-procured stockpile to the public told CP24 they were ordered by the Ministry of Health to stop distributing the tests to parents, and restrict distribution of the tests to small businesses only.
A parent in Toronto's Deer Park neighbourhood told CP24 they applied to the Toronto Region Board of Trade rapid test distribution program and were denied twice this week.
A denial from the board, sent on Monday, stated “parent/volunteer groups do not fall within the eligibility requirements for this program and as such, your appointment has been cancelled.”
“As we’ve been asked to do by the government, when it is clear that a request is from an organization that does not fit the (small and medium enterprise) category, we are informing them that they are ineligible and directing them to the appropriate provincial channel for further supports,” Toronto Region Board of Trade spokesperson Lindsay Broadhead told CP24 on Wednesday.
A representative with the Stay Safe program at Communitech in Kitchener said the Ministry of Health contacted them in the past 48 hours and ordered them not to supply COVID-19 rapid tests to their “ambassadors,” roughly 4,000 parents and other individuals who were previously allowed to sign up and receive regular supplies of test kits, no questions asked.
All of them will now be shut out.
Unvaccinated education workers, and adult workers regardless of vaccination status in a number of businesses sectors remain eligible for asymptomatic COVID-19 rapid surveillance testing in the province.
Asymptomatic children have few free avenues to seek COVID-19 testing, unless they attend high school in one of 13 Ontario school boards or are identified as a contact of a previously identified case.
Both the opposition NDP and Liberals have asked the Ford government this week to expand, not curtail access to rapid tests in schools.
When asked last week, Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore urged parents no to “go ahead” of government and set up surveillance COVID-19 testing programs at schools, and several local school boards have distanced themselves from the initiatives.
On Wednesday, Ontario’s publicly-funded school boards reported 170 new school-related cases of COVID-19, with 159 cases found in students and 11 in staff members.
CP24 has identified at least five such parent-run rapid COVID-19 surveillance testing programs operating around the province as of last week, with dozens more in development.
CP24 has reached out to the Ministry of Health and Health Minister Christine Elliott’s office for comment on this development but has not yet received a reply.
Public Health Ontario (PHO) also weighed in earlier this month, with an evidence brief that said at-home asymptomatic surveillance testing would add “uncertain” safety benefits for schools outside of periods with high community transmission.
But the same document citied major successes with regular surveillance testing in several U.S. states and European countries, saying it demonstrated reduced incidence of cases within school-age children.
PHO also warned implementing surveillance testing in all public schools would be costly and labour intensive.
Ontario government orders agencies to stop supplying parents with rapid COVID-19 tests - CTV News Toronto
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