Interior Health is hinting that COVID-19 rapid tests could be rolled out sometime soon in long-term care homes.

Dr. Albert De Villiers, the chief medical health officer in IH, was asked if the health authority plans to use those tests, after a pilot project done in Vancouver Coastal Health earlier this month.

“It’s definitely a potential, especially early in an outbreak. If we can see what’s going on so we can act a little bit faster. And then also, potentially, to look at how it’s actually spread in the facility. So yes, watch this space, we’ll be updating you as soon as we get those guidelines, which will be soon.”

De Villiers says health officials are working on protocols for how to potentially roll out rapid tests in long-term care.

“They’re working on a protocol on how to actually do this and what’s the best way to do it. So there will be some more information.”

There have been widespread calls from provincial advocates, including the BC Seniors Advocate and the BC Care Providers Association, to bring COVID-19 rapid tests into long-term care, as a way to reduce the number of cases and deaths from the virus in those homes.

Care Providers CEO Terry Lake says a pilot program has identified asymptomatic carriers of the virus that causes COVID-19 who felt fine and came to work.

He says the rapid test results are then confirmed using the gold-standard nasopharyngeal test. “It’s quite possible that even with limited use of these rapid tests, that outbreaks in long term care have been prevented.”

Health Minister Adrian Dix has resisted calls for rapid testing .”It’s partly an issue of the accuracy of the tests – in addition to the investment of staff and effort to test,” he said last week.

Lake says the tests aren’t hard to perform, and some provinces are even training volunteers to conduct them.

– with files from Brett Mineer