Free rapid testing kits available to Albertans starting Friday

Albertans will soon be able to get their hands on rapid COVID-19 testing kits for free.

The UCP government announced Wednesday morning that families would be able to get the kits at 700 select pharmacies in Edmonton, Calgary, and Red Deer, and 140 select Alberta Health Services sites in other communities.

Each kit will include five tests and instructions on how to take the test.

More than 500,000 kits will be available for use on a first-come-first-served basis starting Friday.

“Albertans will be mixing and mingling throughout the Christmas season and often traveling from, for example, cities to hometowns. Expanded rapid testing adds to our current public health measures,” Premier Jason Kenney said Wednesday.


RELATED: Alberta adjusts COVID gathering limits ahead of Christmas


There is a limit of one box per person in a 14-day period, but Albertans can pick up one additional box someone who cannot pick one up themselves provided they have that person’s health care number

Kits will also be made available to elementary schools if that school has found two or more COVID-19 cases among students or staff within two weeks of each other.

Kenney added that the rapid testing kits aren’t a replacement for getting vaccinated, they are simply another line of defence. The premier also expressed some worry over the limited supply.

“We are concerned that our current supply though of only half a million kits may be fully exhausted soon with the expansion of this program. And that’s why last night I renewed my call on the federal government to provide more test kits and to approve more easy-to-use tests for the public,” he said.


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


Should your test come back positive, Kenney says you need to isolate immediately and book a PCR test through Alberta Health Services.

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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