Manitoba has no plans – yet – to follow other provinces with at-home virus testing

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This article was published 11/03/2020 (1788 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Although some provincial governments are working to introduce at-home testing for people with coronavirus symptoms, there are no immediate plans to introduce a similar strategy here.

Manitoba has not recorded its first diagnosis of COVID-19, but as of last week 97 people had been tested. While the province has announced it will be working with the Public Health Agency of Canada to purchase $35.2 million worth of protective gear, personal testing kits were not included.

B.C. and Alberta are providing at-home testing services, which include nursing house calls to administer tests, along with lab facilities set up specifically for obtaining results; Ontario announced Monday it will be following suit.

The goal is to avoid the potential of people with mild symptoms overtaxing emergency rooms.

Health Minister Cameron Friesen said Tuesday that 40 tests per day are being administered in Manitoba.

A spokesperson for the province said it had identified home testing “as a consideration,” but added that there was more work “needed to flesh out options.”

“However, this becomes more of a priority as the number of cases in the province increases,” the spokesperson said in an email to the Free Press, “As there are no lab-confirmed cases known to date, work to prepare is continuing.”

While provincial lab results take 24 hours, some people who have undergone testing say they’ve been told they will hear back in a few days. The spokesperson attributed the delay to time getting samples to and from the lab.

“The timeline for testing currently remains at approximately 24 hours from receipt of the specimen at Cadham Provincial Laboratory,” the email said. “This may have been a miscommunication with the patient, or reflects timeline for transportation of the sample.”

 

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: malakabas_