Health Canada has officially approved a new rapid COVID-19 nasal swab that can give Canadians results in mere minutes. 

On Tuesday, the federal government announced that it was planning to purchase 7.9 million tests along with 3,800 million analyzing devices from Abbott Rapid Diagnostics. 

The test, however, first needed approval by Health Canada, which was granted on Wednesday.

We are increasing 🇨🇦’s capacity to detect & respond to #COVID19 through an agreement w/ @AbbottNews for up to approx. 8M of their ID NOW rapid point-of-care tests - contingent on regulatory approval.

➡️These tests provide results in less than 15 mins.

ℹ️https://t.co/NUghk9Udl6 pic.twitter.com/SmTNX8tGxc

— Anita Anand (@AnitaOakville) September 29, 2020

The Abbott Laboratories molecular devices can be administered by a professional in places like pharmacies and do not need a laboratory to determine if someone has been infected with COVID-19.

The selling point, of course, is that they can produce results in 15 minutes.

The Trudeau government did not give a timeline for when these test kits would be delivered to the provinces and territories. Yesterday, Canada's Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam did say remote and high risk settings would have priority #cdnpoli #COVID19

— Cormac Mac Sweeney (@cmaconthehill) September 30, 2020

This comes as the country was receiving backlash for not have a more efficient way of testing people for the infection.

To date, the majority of tests have been done at public health clinics, with samples then being sent to laboratories for analysis. This process typically took days.

Public Service and Procurement Minister Anita Anand said on Tuesday said that the purchase of these new and improved tests were to help cities that are facing hours-long lines at testing centres.

The FDA has previously said that the test should be administered within the first seven days of the osnet of coronavirus symptoms.