Testing on asymptomatic Manitobans reduced

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 05/11/2020 (1469 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The province is addressing the looming shortage of a key COVID-19 testing device by moving to reduce testing on asymptomatic people.

People without COVID-19 symptoms should not seek testing unless they have been advised to do so by public health officials, Dr. Brent Roussin, Manitoba’s chief public health officer, said Friday. Asymptomatic people without a referral may be turned away from test sites.

In the meantime, Shared Health’s appeal to University of Manitoba research labs has resulted in scientists donating thousands of filtered plastic pipette tips needed to process tests.

“We are grateful for the overwhelming response from our laboratory partners throughout Winnipeg,” a spokesperson for Shared Health said in a statement on Friday. “Those donations, combined with our alternative supply sources will help ensure there are no service impacts while we work with our procurement team to identify additional suppliers.”

Earlier this week, Shared Health reached out to U of M researchers to say there was a desperate need for the pipette tips. At that time, some labs were slated to run out of the pipette tips as early as the weekend, the email from Shared Health said. Without the tips, which are used to draw up liquid samples, COVID-19 tests cannot be processed.

In an email to U of M biology Prof. Jeffrey Marcus on Friday, a representative from Shared Health said that due to an “amazing” response to that appeal, the province had enough of filtered pipette tips to process tests through the weekend and beyond.

Yet the province isn’t out of the woods when it comes to testing supplies. At Friday’s COVID-19 news conference, Roussin acknowledged there is an issue with supply of the pipettes and other key components of COVID-19 testing, including chemical reagents.

“We’re definitely aware of an issue with the pipettes that’s being worked on,” Roussin said. “We’re going to try to ensure we have enough of this moving forward, but it also goes to show that when we talk about a finite resource, this is real… there’s not an unlimited supply of anything in any jurisdiction.”

Shortages of critical laboratory supplies have been a problem for labs across the world for months. While manufacturers have ramped up production throughout the year, surging second waves of the coronavirus and subsequent increases in testing have put further pressure on the global supply chain.

“As the pandemic has progressed, we’ve seen increasing demands worldwide on the finite resources available for testing, and Manitoba is no different,” Roussin said. “You’ve seen our testing capacity dramatically increase from the first wave, and we’re seeing quite high numbers of tests being done in Manitoba at this point.

“But again, we need to ensure this finite resource is used appropriately.”

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca