To get to #COVIDzero we need to look at Slovakia. Over two weekends, they brought their numbers crashing down, from an R0 of 1.47 to 0.62 in just two weeks Thread ->

How did they do it?
- They used two rapid tests from South Korea (Rapigen and SD Biosensor)
- They tested everyone between 10-65 twice over Oct 30-Nov 1, and Nov 6-8.
- Positive tests were isolated for 10 days.
- Untested citizens isolated for 10 days

Impressively, they mobilized 5000 eight-person teams, composed of health care workers, military medics and others.
They used polling stations as makeshift testing centres.
Results were available in 15 minutes
This way, they were able to test 3.6m out of 5.4m total population.

There's no place else in the world that's been able to achieve this in such a short amount of time. They found and isolated 38359 people, 1% of the population.

Source: https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus/country/slovakia?country=~SVK

How can we do this quickly in Canada?
1) Approve and purchase rapid tests approved in EU and other adv countries
2) Do a trial run. Brampton would be ideal given rising #'s
3) Scramble and organize teams, use the two most capable federal orgs, the military and Elections Canada

Some reading:
https://www.ft.com/content/6d20007c-25ad-4d1a-b678-591acaa57df9 https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)32261-3/fulltext

If there's anything that has a chance to save the holidays, its a strategy involving rapid testing.

A perspective from someone with lots of elections experience: https://twitter.com/k_cajee/status/1328810531021615111?s=19