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It’s great to see this revised guidance from @TOPublicHealth @ROPpublichealth on school screening, testing & isolation
It will help reduce community transmission
But are we ready for the impact on our provincial testing and local tracing capacity? 1/ https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.theglobeandmail.com/amp/canada/toronto/article-students-should-stay-home-and-get-tested-for-even-one-covid-19-symptom/
It will help reduce community transmission
But are we ready for the impact on our provincial testing and local tracing capacity? 1/ https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.theglobeandmail.com/amp/canada/toronto/article-students-should-stay-home-and-get-tested-for-even-one-covid-19-symptom/
Our provincial testing numbers already seems near its publicly-stated capacity of 50,000 tests/day with testing numbers rising (as expected with rising counts)
Have we increased capacity? Are we planning to? 2/
Have we increased capacity? Are we planning to? 2/
As we reach our testing capacity, I worry we will start to see delays in test turnaround. This will in turn delay efforts to trace and isolate effectively which in turn means more disease spread 3/
Tests from our testing centre @UnityHealthTO are largely processed in our local lab. Tests are triaged so that tests from symptomatic patients (and outbreaks) are prioritized.
3 mo ago, the provincial lab was not able to triage their testing based on risk. Has that changed? 4/
3 mo ago, the provincial lab was not able to triage their testing based on risk. Has that changed? 4/
I haven’t seen public data breaking down reasons for testing. How many are asymptomatic? Our testing centre still sees many people being tested for planned travel
It’s likely time for the province to issue guidance that these no longer be done at provincial testing centres 5/
It’s likely time for the province to issue guidance that these no longer be done at provincial testing centres 5/
As an aside, it’s frustrating as a parent and family doc to see @TOPublicHealth and @regionofpeel simultaneously issue different guidance on isolation of family members of symptomatic children
It just sows confusion and frustration 6/
It just sows confusion and frustration 6/
TO: sibs of the symptomatic child self isolate while the symptomatic child’s test is pending. Parents don’t need to self isolate.
Peel: the whole family isolates while waiting for the symptomatic child’s test results 7/
Peel: the whole family isolates while waiting for the symptomatic child’s test results 7/
Peel has taken @ottawahealth’s approach
Ottawa has been relatively successful in controlling community #Covid spread compared to @TOPublicHealth @regionofpeel
We don’t know how much of that relates to school screening and isolation policies but some likely does 8/
Ottawa has been relatively successful in controlling community #Covid spread compared to @TOPublicHealth @regionofpeel
We don’t know how much of that relates to school screening and isolation policies but some likely does 8/
If we’re going to have 35 approaches to school screening and isolation in Ontario, we’re hopefully at least learning from the differences and ideally aligning approaches based on the data and consensus 9/
Even with their differences, the changes in school policy in @regionofpeel @TOPublicHealth will mean more parents will need to stay at home
That means paid sick days and reinstating the eviction moratorium are more important than ever.
#testtraceisolatesupport
That means paid sick days and reinstating the eviction moratorium are more important than ever.
#testtraceisolatesupport
