COVID Test Finders finding a way to get rapid tests

COVID-19 test finders A new initiative aims to help connect Canadians with rapid COVID tests, while advocating for their use. CTV Windsor’s Chris Campbell reports

Windsor, Ont. — While demand to make COVID-19 rapid antigen tests widely available, a new grassroots initiative founded by an Ontario doctor aims to help connect Canadians with the difficult-to-find tests while advocating for their use.

COVID Test Finders, created by Dr. Dalia Hasan, acts like the popular Vaccine Hunters Twitter account which informed people when a vaccine clinic near them was opening up or had space available.

“The public deserves to have them,” says Hasan.

Hasan and her team of volunteers search for information about where free rapid testing is available and tweet out details about where to obtain the tests, or have them done.

“We share free rapid test information and also testing centre,” Hasan explains. “We advocate for equitable rapid test accessibility across the country and we also crowd source rapid test donations and funds to distribute rapid test to vulnerable groups.”

The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit seems to have hesitation about the use of rapid testing. The acting medical officer of health Dr. Shanker Nesathurai said earlier this week there are factors to consider, including the accuracy of rapid antigen tests.

“It is 67 per cent sensitive. I think that's the number we're working with. So a coin toss is 50 per cent sensitive,” says Nesathurai. “Given the choice between a test that's done at a hospital or by a healthcare professional, or a test that's self-administered, one can reasonably infer that a test done at the hospital done by a trained professional is probably going to be done in a better fashion to give the right result.”

Across the country, provinces have taken a number of different approaches when it comes to the rollout of rapid antigen tests. As part of its enhanced winter testing strategy, Ontario is launching a holiday testing blitz next week to offer voluntary rapid antigen screening to asymptomatic individuals free of charge. Two million rapid tests will be provided at pop-up testing sites in high-traffic settings such as malls, retail settings, holiday markets and transit hubs.

Hasan tells CTV News, “I think any distribution of rapid tests is a good idea however I think distribution of rapid tests to everyone is a very good idea.”

While PCR tests are still widely considered the “gold standard” in Canada, because the samples from PCR tests must be sent to laboratories for processing, it can take days to receive results. Dr. Hasan says, “The virus is very smart. It’s invisible and it spreads quickly from person to person and that’s where rapid test play an essential role, because they’re able to catch whoever is positive in real time to be able to stop that transmission of COVID.”

Hasan says tests can still cost up to $40 for those who are able to get their hands on them.

Hasan and her team have now turned their account into a grassroots campaign, titled “Free the RATs [Rapid Antigen Tests],” and are now crowdsourcing money to buy rapid tests that will be donated to those who need them most.