What you need to know about COVID-19 rapid tests and their expiry dates

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

A supply of COVID-19 test kits handed out in Alberta in 2021 will expire in early 2024.

The expiry dates are specific to each product, with some expiring in January and others in March, an Alberta Health spokesperson told CTV News Edmonton.

Expired rapid tests should not be used, officials said.

"If it expired we highly recommend you not use it because it’s not going to give you an accurate result," pharmacist Veeral Patel told CTV News Edmonton.

In an email to CTV News Edmonton, test maker BTNX wrote that expired tests give false or invalid results and not to use saline eye drops or distilled water to replace a kit's evaporate solution.

Alberta Blue Cross told pharmacies in November 2023 that a large supply of tests is still available. To find where rapid tests are available in Alberta, click here.

The federal government, which supplied kits to provinces, has an inventory that does not expire until late 2024 and does not plan to get more tests after that.