The latest coronavirus news from Canada and around the world Saturday. This file will be updated throughout the day. Web links to longer stories if available.
10:41 p.m.: Up to 1 million COVID-19 test kits were left to expire inside a Florida warehouse amid a nationwide shortage triggered by a winter surge of coronavirus cases.
At a news conference held by Gov. Ron DeSantis, Kevin Guthrie, the director of Florida’s Division of Emergency Management, confirmed the stockpile of kits, manufactured by Abbott Laboratories, sat unused.
“We had between 800,000 and a million test kits, Abbott rapid test kits, in our warehouse that did expire,” Guthrie told reporters, adding that they were rendered ineffective sometime “before December 26 to December 30.”
Guthrie also defended the kit reserve, claiming that there was not an adequate demand for them — even though people have reported waiting for hours to get tested, particularly in central Florida, starting around mid-December, according to The Orlando Sentinel.
During the same news conference, DeSantis said he planned to ask…
