While health officials have expanded B.C.’s COVID-19 testing strategy to include anyone with symptoms, the province’s top doctor doesn’t have a number in mind when it comes to the number of daily tests she hopes to see done.

Instead, Dr. Bonnie Henry says its important that the province continues to test the right people.

“And we have a strategy for doing that,” she said. “We are testing very aggressively in places where we have outbreaks like our correctional facilities, long term care homes, the poultry outbreaks that we’ve had. And also anybody who’s a close contact. We’ve been testing them regardless of whether they have symptoms.”

Henry’s comments came as the country’s chief public health officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, wants Canada to triple its testing to 60,000 people a day before provinces reopen their economies.

“I don’t have any specific number that we need to do just for the sake of meeting a number,” Henry said, when asked Monday.

“What we want to do is make sure that we have the capacity to test everybody who needs it, and currently we do, even though we’ve opened up the capacity. We’ve increased the number of tests we’re doing.”

As of April 27, 78,665 people have been tested in the province. B.C.’s population is approximately 5.1 million, which puts the testing rate at 13,268 per million people. By comparison the testing rate in Canada is 19,087 per million people.

Henry noted that B.C. is currently doing about 3,000 tests per day, which down from about 7,000 per day earlier in the outbreak.

“We now have a much higher pre-test probability that if somebody is sick with respiratory illnesses, they might have COVID-19,” said Henry. “So that’s where we are focusing our testing. What we need to be assured of is that we are testing everybody who has respiratory symptoms.”

Across Interior Health, COVID-19 testing is done by appointment at one of 14 testing and assessment sites with locations in communities including Kamloops, Salmon Arm, Williams Lake, Revelstoke, Vernon, Penticton, and Kelowna.