Where are Ontario’s millions of missing rapid tests?

Where are Ontario’s millions of COVID-19 rapid tests promised for January from the federal government?

It depends on which level of government you ask.

The province has said it has still not received millions of the 54.3 million tests promised to Ontario by Ottawa in January, and has urged the federal government to make more rapid tests available to provinces as soon as possible.

A spokesperson for Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott said this week that the province has received 36.4 million rapid tests from Ottawa, and expects the remaining 17.93 million tests to be delivered this month.

A federal official speaking on background maintained that the number of tests delivered to Ontario as of Sunday is 45 million, adding that the remaining tests should be delivered in the coming days.

That means what has happened to nearly 10 million tests is in dispute.

The federal official said there have been logistical challenges getting some shipments to Ontario on time. They said four warehouses have turned away trucks since January, including a truck this past weekend hauling one million tests.

“We’re seeing trucks turned away, trucks arriving at the warehouse, and the docking station is taken. They’re turned away because there’s no spot to unload,” the official said.

The trucks go back to federal depots until deliveries can be attempted again at a later time.

An “additional issue” regarding the numbers reported by the province is that some warehouses mistakenly tagged federal deliveries as provincial deliveries, as Ontario has also been buying its own tests, the federal official said.

“We aren’t aware of any trucks being turned away and haven’t identified any examples of federal deliveries being mistaken as provincial,” said Alexandra Hilkene, spokesperson for Elliott.

“All warehouses are aware that deliveries of rapid antigen tests are a priority.”

Federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said on Jan. 5 that the federal government would acquire and distribute 140 million rapid tests across the country, in response to rising case counts due to the highly contagious Omicron variant.

“The federal government was able to procure and received over 140 million tests in Canada, as promised,” said a statement from Duclos’s office.

His office said that as of Sunday, 132 million tests had been delivered to the provinces and territories, with the remainder to be delivered in the coming days.

“We are working with provincial and territorial partners to ensure they’re ready and able to receive these tests,” the statement said.