Nova Scotia parent questions expired take-home COVID-19 test kits

BEDFORD, N.S. -

When Maggie MacGillivray's seven-year-old brought a COVID-19 testing kit home from school last week, she didn't think much of it, until she spotted the expiry date. 

The test device packages indicate an expiration date of May 18, 2021.

"So, I opted to go online and first of all to ensure it was expired and that wasn't the production date," says MacGillivray.

But MacGillivray was correct. After inquiring at her child's school, she says she was told by an administrator that the company who manufactured the tests had extended the expiry for a year.

But that only raised more questions for MacGillivray.

"I'm just not really sure, not being a medical professional, but they are asking us to use these as one, so I feel we are due a bit more information," she says.

The rapid antigen test is manufactured by BD Life Sciences, one of several companies contracted by the federal government to supply more than 400 million such tests in the pandemic.

When CTV News asked the Halifax Regional Centre for Education and the provincial Department of Health and Wellness for more information, both pointed to an email sent to parents last week.

That message, sent Oct. 7, includes a note near the bottom of the letter, stating: "The test kits have a printed expiry date. The manufacturer has extended the expiry date of these kits for one year. For example, if the test expiry date reads May 2021, the actual expiry date is May 2022."

But, when CTV News contacted the manufacturer, a company spokesperson for BD Life Sciences provided a different answer.

Vice-president of public relations, Troy Kirkpatrick, wrote in an email that the extension was to support a shelf-life of up to 12 months.

"So, any kit with an expiration date of 2021-05-18 (May 18) has been extended six months and the new expiration date would be 2021-11-18 (Nov. 18)."

Those conflicting responses have created more questions for MacGillivray.

For one thing, she wanted to know if the test is still safe to use on her child if it expires.

And for another, "that original expiry date was put on there for a reason," she says, "why is that allowed?"

The latest numbers posted by Health Canada show the federal government sent Nova Scotia more than 160,000 of the BD tests, and more than 47,000 of those have been given out as of Sept. 3.

Doug Hadley of the HRCE tells CTV news close to 35,000 were sent out to Halifax area schools to give to children under 12 last week. 

When it comes to using expired rapid test kits, infectious disease specialist Dr. Lisa Barrett notes the kits aren't expired right now.

She says any expiry extension is done after testing by the company.

"The expiry date that was written on these tests originally was re-evaluated by the company," she says.

She adds that because the tests are relatively new, that date is a moving target.

Barrett says using an expired test isn't a safety concern.

"The components of the kit itself, the swab, the actual test, are not unsafe all of the sudden at the end of six months after or one year after the expiry date."

"The question really is, will all the positives be positive and will all the negatives be negative," she adds. "We don't know that for sure after the company recommended expiry date, so we go and extend the expiry date, to the point that the company has done the test parameters and test experimentation."

Barrett says the fact that the company could go back and apply an extension in the first place, suggests the kits don't suddenly become ineffective on a given date.

"It's a very much more grey area," Barrett said.

Health Canada approved the expiry extension of the BD test kits in March, but told CTV News on Wednesday the rest is up to the provinces.

Nova Scotia's Department of Health and Wellness did not provide an official to explain whether this apparent expiry date confusion - will affect the number of tests the province has left to use before they actually expire.

Instead, the department offered a brief email statement: "We understand some families have raised concerns with the expiry dates listed on the tests in the take home testing kits distributed to PP- Grade 6. None of the tests are currently expired and the tests remain safe and effective to use."

For Maggie MacGillivray, the uncertainty means she's forgoing the take home test for her son -- for now.