Ottawa is taking steps to ramp up surge capacity for COVID-19 testing in provinces and territories.
Officials announced Tuesday afternoon that the Government of Canada has signed an agreement with Abott Rapid Diagnostics ULD to purchase up to 7.9 million ID NOW rapid point-of-care tests.
The purchase is pending Health Canada authorization of the tests.
If authorized, officials say the tests would be deployed to provinces and territories.
Ottawa is also purchasing up to 3,800 analyzers from the company, which are the devices that perform the test and deliver the rapid results.