Out of stock since December, pharmacists expect the first shipment of rapid tests of the year to fly away quickly. Each Quebec pharmacy should receive around 300 boxes of five self-tests on Tuesday.
“What I predict is that it will be difficult this week, but as the tests come in, as the orders come in, it will level out and we will be able to meet the demand”, warns the President of the Quebec Association of Owner Pharmacists (AQPP), Benoit Morin.
Some 2,000 pharmacies in Quebec will share the first federal order for rapid tests, consisting of 600,000 kits of five BTNX tests, the same brand as the tests distributed in December. Pharmacies expect to receive three more shipments of around 100 boxes this week, on average, depending on their size.
” [Ces tests] will be distributed across Quebec overnight and tomorrow morning [mardi]. The vast majority of pharmacies will receive them during the day, and a few others perhaps on Wednesday, for the most remote regions, ”confirms the general manager of the Quebec Association of Pharmacy Distributors (AQDP), Hugues Mousseau.
This first substantial arrival in 2022 will not, however, make it possible to offer a box to everyone. The population will have to show a little more patience, warns Mr. Morin, according to which the supply will become sufficient to supply the demand later in January.
“There are pharmacies which have made waiting lists, which have reserved these tests for people. I have colleagues who told me that they had lists of 500 names, ”he explains.
He calculates that in addition to the 3 million rapid tests expected for Tuesday, between 7 and 9 million additional tests should be distributed to the population through pharmacies during the month of January. The balance of the 31.5 million tests promised by the federal government for the month must be sent to schools or daycares, to the health system, or for other uses deemed essential by Quebec.
On Wednesday, the manufacturer’s cancellation of an order by Quebec for three million rapid tests routed the provincial plan to deliver its own self-tests to pharmacies more quickly. The delivery schedule to pharmacies was however saved by the federal government’s announcement on the same day that the same number of tests would be sent to the province.