At-home COVID-19 testing kits now available — but they’ll cost you

At-home COVID-19 testing kits are now available in Canada, but they don’t come cheap.

Each kit goes for $122 Cdn plus taxes. On Wednesday, Health Canada gave the OK for the kits.

Chicago-based P23 Labs makes the PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) saliva kits and sends them out to consumers. They’re available for purchase from the company’s website.

Speaking with Gormley on Thursday, client services and operational excellence director Sandrine McClain said the tests are geared towards travellers and those who either can’t or don’t want to leave their homes for a nasal swab.

“With our kits, you can just order the kit (and) it’s delivered straight to your home. It’s non-invasive, it’s really comfortable and it’s really convenient,” she said.

McClain said the kit comes with a tube to spit into. The user is not supposed to eat, drink or smoke for half an hour before taking the test.

“You spit into the tube until you fill up (to) the line. It’s really important that we fill it up with saliva, so no bubbles,” she said.

The person then closes the lid, shakes the sample and puts it into a biohazard bag, then into a shipping box which comes with a label, and you mail it back to the company.

“When we get it we take it, we test it, and within 24 to 48 hours you will receive your results,” she said.

McClain says those results are then sent out by encrypted email to the person who took the test.

She says her company went through months of regulatory approvals with Health Canada to ensure it was meeting Canadian standards and legal compliance.

While no test is 100 per cent accurate, McClain said P23’s is about 98 per cent accurate. The company is hoping to expand its clientele to include government agencies, universities and telehealth.