Testing for COVID-19: Increasing testing supply

On this page

• What Canada is doing
• Increasing testing options
• Securing and distributing rapid test
• Supporting testing capacity across Canada

What Canada is doing

Testing and screening, along with local public health measures and vaccination, are important tools to limit the spread of COVID-19 and its variants.

Canada is:

• mobilizing industry and providing support for research, market approval, manufacturing and access to medical supplies
• working with companies that are developing new and innovative testing technologies
• engaging with international regulators to share knowledge about new developments related to testing

Increasing testing options

Health Canada reviews testing devices to assess safety, effectiveness and quality before authorizing for sale in Canada. For us to authorize a test, the manufacturer must submit an application for review.

Health Canada has authorized over 100 different COVID-19 tests. We also continue to fast-track the review of COVID-19 tests, including new testing options.

We are currently prioritizing the review of tests that are:

• self-testing kits
• point-of-care antigen or molecular tests that use nasal swabs or saliva
• testing devices that test for multiple respiratory viruses (also called multiplex)

Health Canada is also prioritizing the review of novel technology, such as breathalyzers, for use in Canada. We are working with manufacturers to ensure these novel technologies are safe and effective.

In all cases, manufacturers must prove that the test is safe and effective by the intended user before we will authorize it. For example, for self-testing kits, the manufacturer must prove that a person can use their test safely and effectively without being supervised by a health care professional.

Securing and distributing rapid tests

On behalf of the federal government, Public Services and Procurement Canada purchased hundreds of millions of COVID-19 rapid tests to distribute across the country. This purchase ensures that the Canada can increase testing capacity with authorized, proven and effective technologies. Find out about our rapid test agreements and the types of COVID-19 rapid tests purchased.

There is currently a delay in reporting the deployment of COVID-19 rapid tests due to the time it takes for tests to be:

• shipped and delivered to provinces and territories
• distributed throughout each jurisdiction

The tables on this page show the number of COVID-19 rapid tests that have been:

• received from suppliers and shipped to provinces and territories as of Sept 13 2022
• distributed by provincial and territorial governments as of September  02, 2022
• distributed by the federal government to workplaces, community groups and non-profit organizations as of September 13, 2022.

These numbers are updated regularly.

Shipment and distribution of COVID-19 rapid tests in Canada:

Shipments in Canada by company/product

Shipment of COVID-19 rapid tests in Canada

CompanyFootnote * name	Product name	Tests received from suppliers	Tests shipped to provinces/territories
Abbott Rapid Diagnostics ULC	Panbio COVID-19 Ag Rapid Test	132,306,400	125,209,586
Abbott Rapid Diagnostics ULC	ID Now Covid-19	7,023,024	5,777,000
Artron Laboratories Inc	ARTRON COVID-19 ANTIGEN TEST	33,702,801	33,702,426
Becton Dickinson Canada Inc.	BD Veritor™ System for Rapid Detection of SARS-CoV-2	12,208,770	10,742,910
Btnx Inc	Rapid Response COVID-19 Antigen Rapid test Device	389,759,200	353,769,901
CanAm Scientific Inc.	SARS-COV-2 Rapid Antigen Nasal SD Biosensor	2,419,110	426,300
Lucira Health Inc.	Lucira CHECK✓IT COVID-19 Test Kit	212,410	75,736
Maverin Inc.	ACON Flowflex SARS-CoV-2 Antigen Rapid Test	20,500,000	1,295,400
Precision Biomonitoring Inc. (Canada)	Triplelock SARS-CoV-2 Tests	3,506,000	3,495,200
Quidel Canada ULC	Sofia SARS Antigen FIA	850,000	73,200
Quidel Canada ULC	QuickVue At-Home OTC COVID Test	16,905,775	6,220,575
Roche Diagnostics	SD Biosensor SARS-CoV-2 Rapid Antigen Self Test NASAL	11,229,350	11,135,525
Switch Health Holdings Inc.	SD Biosensor, Inc Standard Q Covid 19 AG Nasal Test	92,759,725	48,403,425
Trimedic Therapeutics	COVID-19 Antigen Rapid Test / Assuretech	7,857,080	7,857,080
Total		731,239,645	608,184,264
Footnotes Footnote * "Company" may refer to the manufacturer of the device or a third-party supplier. Return to footnote * referrer

Shipments to and distribution by provinces and territories

Shipment of COVID-19 rapid tests to and distribution by provinces/territories

Province/territory	Tests shipped to province/territory	Tests distributed by province/territory
Alberta	77,649,300	40,143,478
British Columbia	74,296,801	29,351,941
Manitoba	24,575,534	14,636,068
New Brunswick	17,326,280	15,225,182
Newfoundland and Labrador	9,008,222	4,423,824
Nova Scotia	21,625,177	13,433,658
Northwest Territories	774,736	369,116
Nunavut	710,229	214,702
Ontario	216,107,325	172,186,793
Prince Edward Island	3,258,571	1,942,909
Quebec	131,993,248	110,626,018
Saskatchewan	30,126,845	23,691,283
Yukon	731,996	616,112
Total	608,184,264	426,861,084

Federal allocation

As of September 13, 2022

Federal distribution of COVID-19 rapid tests to workplaces, community groups and non-profit organizations

Recipient	Tests shipped
Private-sector workplacesFootnote *	13,557,720
Federal departments/ agencies, RCMP, Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), workplaces	6,208,742
Community groups and non-profit organizationsFootnote **	7,927,791
Total	27,694,253
Footnotes Footnote * Includes tests shipped directly from Health Canada to medium-large organizations and to participating pharmacy distributors for re-distribution to Small-Medium Enterprises Return to footnote * referrer Footnote ** Includes tests shipped to Canadian Red Cross and northern grocers for re-distribution to registered charities or non-profit organizations (for workplaces or individual distribution), gateway airports, and Northern, Remote and Isolated Communities, etc. Return to footnote ** referrer

Supporting testing capacity across Canada

The federal government has provided $4.28 billion to the provinces and territories to help them:

• conduct testing (up to 200,000 tests per day across Canada)
• perform contact tracing
• share public health data to help fight the pandemic

Canada is also providing funding and support to improve and modernize data management. This will help all levels of government coordinate their efforts to contain the virus.

For more information, refer to:

• the Safe Restart Agreement, which includes the testing targets that have been agreed to
• the COVID-19 epidemiology update, for daily and weekly numbers of people tested

Related links

• Testing for COVID-19: When to get tested and testing results
• COVID-19: Prevention and risks
• List of authorized testing devices
• Measures to reduce COVID-19 in your community
• Collaboration with the Public Health Agency of Canada's National Microbiology Laboratory