Monday, March 30, 2026
ADVT 
National

Time to greenlight rapid COVID-19 tests: experts

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 23 Sep, 2020 07:24 PM
  • Time to greenlight rapid COVID-19 tests: experts

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is promising to do more to help provinces respond to soaring demands for COVID-19 testing but there is still no indication of when the government will approve the tests that can deliver results in mere minutes.

The promise of aid for testing comes in the speech from the throne read in Ottawa today.

Canadians across the country are finding it harder to get tested for COVID-19, as demand soars and the capacity to swab people and test those swabs in labs is maxed out.

A Health Canada spokesman says the department is making it a priority to review six proposals for rapid-testing systems but that none has yet been approved.

The government says in the throne speech that as soon as the tests are approved it will do everything it can to deploy them quickly.

But two Ottawa public health experts say the rapid tests can help reduce the burden on the system even if they aren't as accurate as the government would normally like.

MORE National ARTICLES

Minister looking into Ortis allegations: PM

Minister looking into Ortis allegations: PM
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Public Safety Minister Bill Blair is looking into allegations the RCMP brushed off warnings about a senior director who was later arrested on national-security charges.

Minister looking into Ortis allegations: PM

N.S. mass shooting: media outlets challenge judge

N.S. mass shooting: media outlets challenge judge
David Coles submitted an application today for a judicial review of decisions Judge Laurel Halfpenny-MacQuarrie made last month, arguing she had exceeded her jurisdiction.

N.S. mass shooting: media outlets challenge judge

Trudeau denounces Macdonald statue vandalism

Trudeau denounces Macdonald statue vandalism
The Macdonald statue was unbolted, toppled and sprayed with graffiti on Saturday at the end of a protest demanding cities cut police budgets.

Trudeau denounces Macdonald statue vandalism

Alberta woman pleads guilty to manslaughter

Alberta woman pleads guilty to manslaughter
Deborah Doonanco, who is 58, was initially found guilty of second-degree murder, arson and interfering with human remains after Kevin Feland's body was found in her home in Glendon, Alta., in May 2014.

Alberta woman pleads guilty to manslaughter

Climate change creating vast new glacial lakes

Climate change creating vast new glacial lakes
The fact that glaciers around the world are shrinking due to climate change is well-established. What hasn't been so well studied is where all that water is going.

Climate change creating vast new glacial lakes

PBO: Business rent relief to cost $931M

PBO: Business rent relief to cost $931M
A federal spending watchdog says a program aiming to providing rent relief to small and medium-sized businesses will cost just under $1 billion this fiscal year.

PBO: Business rent relief to cost $931M