Mississauga mayor says Ontario doing right thing by making COVID-19 rapid tests available

Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie is applauding the Ontario government for making COVID-19 rapid tests available to the public free of charge.

Late this week, Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced that both on-site testing and free take-home rapid test kits were being made available at various high-traffic locations across the province.

The availability of test sites and test kits comes as part of the Ontario government’s latest response to surging cases of the virus due largely to the onset of the Omicron variant.

Ontario has made available two million rapid test kits to be provided free of charge through mid-January at pop-up testing sites in high-traffic settings such as malls, other retail areas, holiday markets, public libraries and transit hubs in Mississauga and across the province.

The decision to bring rapid tests to people is the right thing to do. Combined with vaccinations, these are powerful weapons in our fight against Omicron. I know @Fordnation is working hard to get more tests out the door. I support this approach.

— Bonnie Crombie 🇨🇦 (@BonnieCrombie) December 17, 2021

Test kits and on-site testing are available only for people who are asymptomatic and have not recently been in contact with someone with COVID-19.

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Select LCBO stores in Mississauga and elsewhere are also handing out free test kits.

The rollout of the free test kits wasn’t without some big hiccups, though, that left many people frustrated.

Many LCBO stores didn’t yet have any of the kits when people started showing up looking for them on Thursday and Friday while a number of stores that did have the kits quickly ran out of supply.

Crombie took to Twitter late this afternoon to show support for the Ford government’s response to date.

“The decision to bring rapid tests to people is the right thing to do,” Crombie tweeted. “Combined with vaccinations, these are powerful weapons in our fight against Omicron.”

Some who responded to the mayor’s tweet expressed frustration at what they felt was a poorly organized effort to get tests into the hands of people.

But the communication is poor, thousands of people turning up atLCBO and others to be told they have no supply and have no idea when they will. Poor communication equals low understanding.

— Kate Hepworth (@KateH2point_0) December 17, 2021

Rapid tests should’ve been readily available long time ago! Why aren’t they available for sale in all drugstores at a cheap price?! It’s so hard to get one! Now we’re scrambling to even distribute some and only the lucky ones can get their hands on. Put one in everyone’s mailbox!

— Hava Java (@HavaJava7) December 17, 2021