On Wednesday, September 30, Health Canada officially approved a new rapid COVID-19 nasal swab test that can provide results in less than 15 minutes.
Anita Anand, Minister of Public Services and Procurement, and Patty Hajdu, Minister of Health, had announced yesterday that the Government of Canada has signed an agreement with Abbott Rapid Diagnostics ULC to purchase up to 7.9 million ID NOW rapid point-of-care tests, pending Health Canada authorization of the tests.
Upon authorization, these tests would be deployed to provinces and territories to support them in ramping upsurge capacity for COVID-19 testing.
“As cases of COVID-19 are rising, following public health measures is important to flatten the curve. Detecting cases of COVID-19 quickly is also critical to slow the spread of the virus and today’s announcement will help increase Canada’s capacity, should the tests be authorized by Health Canada”, stated The Honourable Patty Hajdu, Minister of Health.
As per Health Canada website, the authorization was done today September 30.
Under the agreement with Abbott, the Government of Canada is also purchasing up to 3,800 analyzers, which are the devices that perform the test and deliver the rapid results.
The Abbott ID NOW system is a rapid molecular point-of-care test for COVID-19. The technology can detect the virus directly from a nasal swab, returning results between 5 and 13 minutes.
The testing system is small and lightweight and can easily be transported to remote locations and operated with minimal training.
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