Horwath calls for broad, urgent roll out of free rapid COVID tests

QUEEN’S PARK — Official Opposition NDP Leader Andrea Horwath is calling for the broad and urgent roll out of free rapid COVID tests to all Ontarians.

Horwath’s call echoes the advice coming from experts and takes on new urgency following worrying new modeling from Ontario’s Science Table.

“We should be making rapid tests free right now, and handing out as many as we possibly can,” said Horwath. “This is part of the action plan Ontario needs to prevent another COVID wave. Let people take a rapid test before visiting with loved ones. Encourage people take a rapid test at the first signs of a cold. That’s what other provinces do, and if I were premier today, that’s what Ontario would do.”

The government has admitted there are more than five million unused tests in Ontario just collecting dust in storage.