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Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry announced the province’s new testing strategy yesterday.
Availability of COVID-19 testing expands
By Hannah Scott, Local Journalism Initiative reporter
Published 11:16 PDT, Tue April 21, 2020
Last Updated: 2:13 PDT, Wed May 12, 2021
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Testing for COVID-19 is now available through physicians, nurse practitioners and local COVID-19 collection centres, said provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry on Monday.
Initially, testing focused on returning travellers in an attempt to understand the source of transmission. There was also a community testing strategy based on the influenza surveillance network. But as widespread community transmission continued to happen, testing switched its focus to high-risk and vulnerable people—including outbreaks in long-term care, people who are critically ill and health care workers.
Henry said testing is now being used to identify and address new community clusters and outbreaks.
“We want to avoid another spike in community cases, and that’s why we are changing the strategy again,” she said.
“Right now, anyone with symptoms of COVID-19 can now be assessed and tested either through your family physician, if you have one, your nurse practitioner, or a local community collection centre.”
However, the test has limited benefit and is not necessarily valid if you have no symptoms and have not had contact with anyone confirmed to have COVID-19 or associated with a known community outbreak.
Henry stressed the importance of remaining committed to flattening the curve.
“We are not yet through this storm. We must remain vigilant, and our testing strategy is part of that. We can only make those changes that we want and need to do when we have a sustained downward trend in people who are getting sick with COVID-19 in our province,” said Henry.
Support and care across the province is increasing thanks to a new framework announced yesterday by Premier John Horgan. Rural, remote and Indigenous communities will benefit from more in-community support and testing, as well as faster access to primary and urgent care.
Henry announced new cases for two 24-hour reporting periods: 29 new cases from April 18 to 19 and 23 new cases from April 19 to 20. These new cases bring the confirmed total to 1,699 in BC.
Over the weekend reporting period, there were five new COVID-19 related deaths for a total of 86.
For the latest medical updates, including case counts, prevention, risks and testing, visit: http://www.bccdc.ca/ or follow @CDCofBC on Twitter.
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