Health care workers may have a new way to get COVID-19 test results more quickly.
Health Canada has approved a new rapid test for the virus.
The company that makes it, Spartan Bioscience, says it can show results in less than an hour. It uses a hand held device which means there is no need to send samples away to a lab.
They say they'll be ready to start shipping tests as early as today. Ontario has ordered 900,000 kits.
It sounds like they'll be used in smaller, more remote communities which have to send their swabs to big city labs for testing.
CEO Dr. Paul Lem told CTV News, “They have to send the results back to whoever ordered the test, so that's why it can take days or even over a week, to get the test results."
The company's device, the Spartan Cube, is already being used to test for strep throat, sexually transmitted infections and other illnesses.