As the COVID-19 pandemic continues and public health testing restricted to at-risk groups, the demand for rapid tests in the Okanagan continues.
When asked to show Global Okanagan one of the new CovClear rapid antigen COVID-19 tests, Craig Tostenson, owner of the Pharmasave in Glenmore, said he just managed to bring some in on Wednesday and expected the 60 kits to fly off the shelf.
“People just want to know, that’s the bottom line,” Tostenson said about at-home COVID-19 tests.
It’s a bottom line that has made finding a rapid antigen test kit, test most people’s patience because they are so hard to find.
Three weeks ago, an informal survey of ten Kelowna pharmacies found that none of them had rapid tests available. Twenty-one days later, the odds of finding a test haven’t changed that much.
On Thursday, Global News spoke with 12 Kelowna pharmacies and only two of them had the tests in stock.
It’s a basic case of demand outstripping supply, one that Tostenson predicts won’t change anytime soon.
“Extremely difficult,” Tostenson said of sourcing tests.
“We have been looking it seems like for months.”
Now, the Glenmore pharmacist has sourced a number of rapid tests out of Florida.
“It shows that 99.4 percent of all results are accurate,” Tostenson said as he read the test literature.
Besides your local pharmacy, the Interior Health Authority has promised easier access to rapid testing.
“Rapid testing will become much more available throughout the province of B.C.,” said IHA president Susan Brown.
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“Where that exactly will be is still to be determined but definitely there are lot more tests coming into the province,” Brown added.
The demand for rapid tests is so high that Tostenson is going right back to his source looking to secure more immediately.
“Hopefully the source is robust,” Tostenson said.
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