Ontario received 100,000 contaminated, unusable swabs for COVID-19 tests
From https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2020/04/10/ontario-received-100000-contaminated-unusable-swabs-for-covid-19-tests.html
Ontario received 100,000 contaminated, unusable swabs for COVID-19 tests
By Kate AllenScience and Technology Reporter
Fri., April 10, 2020
2 min. read
A shipment of more than 100,000 testing swabs arrived in Ontario contaminated and unusable, the Star has learned, illustrating how even as the province strives to expand its COVID-19 lab-testing capacity it is still contending with global supply-chain havoc wrought by the pandemic.
The shipment of much-needed swabs, a critical component of the testing, was the first instalment of a big order procured by the federal government, with hundreds of thousands of more from the contaminated batch on the way. The contamination is believed to be mould.
Without the federal order, the province currently has about 200,000 swabs on hand, enough for seven to 10 days worth of tests, according to provincial officials. Multiple agencies and departments are actively working on acquiring more.
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