Federal Procurement Minister Anita Anand said the first shipment of rapid tests for COVID-19 has arrived in Canada.
Canada signed a deal with Abbott Diagnostics to buy 7.9-million ‘ID Now’ tests, which can produce results on the spot in under 15 minutes.
The eventual destination of the 100,000 tests remains shrouded in mystery.
The tests are to be deployed to provincial governments.
Neither Anand’s office nor Health Canada will say which province will get them first, or how many will be shipped where.
Governments in Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba said they are desperately trying to improve testing capacity as the second wave of COVID-19 continues to surge.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Ottawa has also received more than 800 million masks, gloves, gowns and face shields.
The federal government sent 20 million units of PPE to provinces this month.
COVID-19 update
Technical issues caused a delay with the daily COVID-19 update.
Alberta reported no new cases and four recoveries of COVID-19 in the RMWB.
All four recoveries are within Fort McMurray’s urban service area, which has 28 active cases.
Across the region, there are 31 active cases, one death, and 357 recoveries of the illness.
Edmonton’s Misericordia Hospital provided an update on its COVID-19 outbreak situation.
As we await the Alberta COVID update, here’s the latest from the Misericorida hospital outbreaks, where one new patient and one new staff member have tested positive. #yeg #ableg #covid19ab pic.twitter.com/C3ptsyx2JW
— Courtney Theriault (@cspotweet) October 21, 2020
The province reported a record 406 new cases of COVID-19 across Alberta.
That’s the highest single-day case count in the province since the start of the pandemic.
1649 of Alberta’s active cases are in the Edmonton Zone.
In the last 24 hours, three Albertans died of COVID-19 to bring the death toll to 296.
234 Albertans recovered from the illness, but 113 Albertans are in hospital with 16 in intensive care.
Alberta has 3372 active cases, 296 deaths, and 19,734 recoveries of COVID-19.
NEW:
– 406 new COVID cases in AB (tests are uh not quite accurate)
– 113 in hospital, 16 in ICU
– 3 new deaths, now up to 296
– 3372 active cases (+169)#yeg #yyc #ableg #covid19ab pic.twitter.com/lmMXA4NnZq— Courtney Theriault (@cspotweet) October 21, 2020
Premier Jason Kenney is in isolation at home after learning a Cabinet minister tested positive for COVID-19.
A spokesman said Kenney went into self-isolation after learning that Municipal Affairs Minister Tracy Allard was infected.
Deputy press secretary Harrison Fleming says Allard entered isolation last weekend because a close contact tested positive.
He said Allard received her positive test result this afternoon and Kenney immediately went into isolation as a precaution.
Shortly before that, Kenney was speaking in the legislature during question period.
This article includes excerpts from The Canadian Press.
