Will rapid tests be enough to get the whole family around the same table this holiday season?

Albertans are in full holiday prep mode, figuring out what to cook, what to wear, and as Omicron cases rise, families are deciding if rapid tests are enough to get everyone together under the same roof or if Grandma and Grandpa will be visiting via Zoom for another year.

“Rapid tests could be pretty useful because the timing of when vaccines were available was still pretty recent,” said Wing Li with Support Our Students Alberta. “With the new variant now growing in the province, it’s just a confluence of a lot of factors that we should be using every tool possible to lessen the blow.”

Advocates across the province have been calling for access to free tests as testing an entire family can be quite costly, but getting your hands on rapid tests is getting easier, and for some, they hold the key to seeing family as a lot of children are still unprotected.

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“They need two doses and two weeks after their second dose to have the full work of this vaccine and the problem is that now we have Omicron already, and two doses of the vaccine, they protect somewhat against Omicron, but not as well,” said Gosia Gasperowicz, a developmental biologist from the University of Calgary.

“So, kids between five and 12, although they have the first dose of the vaccine, they are not protected.”

This comes as the state of public emergency is set to come to an end in the province.

Right now, only two households can gather indoors. Premier Jason Kenney is expected to relax those orders as he too has holiday plans that would break the current rules.

“The best would be to avoid them now at least until we can prevent the Omicron spread, but if we are going to meet with grandparents for example, then it would be good if, for two weeks, the kids wouldn’t have outside the household contact,” said Gasperowicz.