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North Shore residents want rapid antigen tests: poll

Only 10 per cent of survey respondents say they don't want rapid tests
North Shore News
Negative covid-19 rapid test
A negative COVID-19 rapid test. The take-home self-tests are now available for Whistler locals and visitors experiencing symptoms of the virus. Oliver Helbig, Getty Images

A wide majority of North Shore residents say they would be using COVID-19 rapid tests if they were available.

As the Omicron variant has spread so rapidly, most people showing up to COVID testing sites are being turned away.

The province has a stockpile of rapid tests but Dr. Bonnie Henry has said their packaging makes them difficult for distribution for public use.

North Shore News polled 1,124 online readers and asked the question: Would you use COVID-19 rapid tests at home if they were available?

The poll ran from Dec. 16 to 31 on our website. Of the 1,124 votes, we can determine that 462 are from within the North Shore community. The full results are as follows:

Yes, increased testing should be part of our COVID response strategy. 69.26% local, 67.53% total    
Maybe if I had plans to socialize with people outside my household. 20.13% local, 19.93% total    
No, I don't trust the rapid tests. 10.61% local, 12.54% total    
  Local   Total

More rapid tests designed for home use are expected to come this month.

Results are based on an online study of adult North Shore News readers that are located in North Vancouver and West Vancouver. The margin of error - which measures sample variability - is +/- 2.91%, 19 times out of 20.

North Shore News uses a variety of techniques to capture data, detect and prevent fraudulent votes, detect and prevent robots, and filter out non-local and duplicate votes.