[Man] I'll just get you to line up against the wall here kind of spaced out.
[Reporter] At a Halifax hotel a new send-off to see.
All right, you're all ready to go.
A COVID test for these men and the rest of the 35-person clam harvesting crew set off together .
It's a little discomfort now but they'll get a result back within the day
and the peace of mind that comes with it.
Making sure we take that extra level of precaution was for us to sleep at night
but also for our employees and their families knowing that we're doing everything we possibly can
to make sure that they're safe and the vessel's safe and they're coming home
you know in a safe manner.
[Reporter] Tony Jabbour is vice president of fleet operations for Clearwater.
Last fall the seafood company invested in mobile PCR tests
like the ones used in public health labs to detect genetic material of the COVID-19 virus.
Only these deliver results in a couple of hours.
It's an added measure clearwater says to stay safe and stay afloat.
When you go on board with a vessel
we do social distancing, staggered meals that type of stuff
but you cannot 100 per cent social distance and then you're at sea for 35 days so
it's really important that to add that to our screening process
and make sure we don't have an asymptomatic case that gets on one of the vessels
and we have a major outbreak, it would be catastrophic.
[Reporter] From fisheries to pharmacies COVID tests are being used in dozens of sites across the country
and being tested to for wider use.
[Man] Are you experiencing any of the following symptoms, fever?
[Reporter] In Mississauga this Shopper's Drug Mart is part of a new pilot project.
Its parent company Loblaw is offering rapid tests to employees in nearly 20 of its pharmacies
and retail locations in Ontario and Alberta.
The test used here is designed to pick up antigens in someone infected with COVID.
With a shorter swab, antigen tests are less invasive and deliver results in a matter of minutes.
They're not as sensitive as the gold standard PCR test but they're easy and quick.
And pharmacist Mohamed Elsabakhawi says that makes them ideal for screening purposes
because of the nature of COVID there are asymptomatic people going around
they could be spreading the virus not knowing.
The value that this can bring is we can catch it early and stop the spread of the virus.
Donneka Getten-Kerr has been working throughout the pandemic
and has lived with the stress of potentially bringing COVID home.
I have my two-year-old and I have my mom who's high-risk
so for me it's really awesome knowing that I'm not putting them at risk.
[Reporter] She and other employees get tested twice a week.
[Woman] Knowing that we are in an environment providing care for other people that are sick
and we need to be careful we need to make sure that we are taking higher precautions
than the normal person would.
[Reporter] Ottawa has delivered nearly 17 million rapid antigen tests
to provinces over the past few months
but only a fraction have been used so far.
Part of the reluctance is rapid antigen tests aren't as reliable as the PCR tests used in hospitals
and test centers
but there is growing interest to find out how useful rapid tests can be.
Pensionnat du Saint-Nom-de-Marie is one of two schools in Montreal where students are randomly tested every day.
And will be until the end of the school year.
The goal is to identify and contain any asymptomatic cases as quickly as possible.
The study was proposed by a doctor who was also a school parent.
We are all wanting our children to go to school and to be in school.
Dr Caroline Quash is a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Ste. Justine Hospital.
Quash wants to determine how useful rapid tests can be when used regularly in a controlled environment.
The plan is to verify any positive samples with a PCR test
and also sequence those samples to find out where the infection came from.
In a classroom when you have a case and you screen the students around them
you might be able to find you know secondary transmission right away.
And so you can act more quickly on that child's family
their siblings if they're in school already.
The growing interest in rapid tests.
The reality of the resources needed to use them more widely is prompting real-time solutions.
It was really essential for us to be able to get this up and running and support the testing obviously
doing a great job with your technique.
[Reporter] Curtis Aab is the acting chair of the life sciences department
at Red River College in Winnipeg.
The college set up this condensed course in a matter of weeks
to support the province's plan to offer rapid testing to teachers.
These students are learning how to transfer samples for analysis.
Their skills will be in demand says Aab
and will help the province use every tool available to control the spread of COVID.
Talked to a lot of people that have had to go for COVID-19 testing and the wait times
and some of the anxiety associated with that so I think you know the opportunity to have rapid tests available
to get those results faster to give more clarity to patients in a quicker amount of time
is a great thing to have and great to be a part of.
[Reporter] But while the value of rapid testing is promising it is still emerging and the data is limited.
I think that the evidence base is is firming up and kind of supports the initial idea
that this can be useful if it's positive but that you can't rely on it if it's negative.
And Dr. Lynora Saxinger is an infectious disease expert at the University of Alberta.
She says the concern is people already weary of the pandemic may drop their guard
because while a positive result can be a warning sign
a negative one may result in a false sense of reassurance.
So if you get a test and it's negative it does not mean that you do not carry the virus
and it does not mean that you might not start carrying the virus over a very short time period
after the test so you can't use it to rule out infection.
Whereas I know just anecdotally that people still tend to like to rely on a test
and get a test to make sure they're not infectious
so that they can go do something like visit grandma or whatever
and that's exactly what we don't want to happen.
[Reporter] At Shoppers Drug Mart the messaging is rapid testing is just an added layer of precaution.
Especially for essential workers and Loblaws hoping what it learns here
could help it scale up.
And so we thought that this could be a possible solution to small, medium businesses
to send their employees to to one of our stores.
Ashesh Desai is the Executive Vice President of Pharmacy and Healthcare at Shoppers Drug Mart.
He says Loblaw could offer rapid testing to other companies too.
So the process could be that they've signed up to participate in this program.
Their employees could go into any one of our stores whether it's a Shoppers Drug Mart or a Loblaw pharmacy.
So if i'm grocery shopping Sunday afternoon
you know maybe there's an opportunity for me to book a screening at that point in time.
Back in Nova Scotia most of the crew of the Arctic Endurance is on board ready to set off from Mulgrave
for more than a month at sea.
Everyone's test came back negative and while the results here took hours rather than minutes to get back
they are more accurate.
So while the weather can turn at least on the COVID front the coast is pretty clear.
Ioanna Roumeliotis, CBC News, Toronto.