People who don’t have COVID-19 symptoms don’t have to be tested, according to B.C.’s provincial health officer.
Dr. Bonnie Henry says that includes if they have travelled abroad and are self-isolating for 14 days, as required by the provincial and federal governments.
She made that comment as some Urgent Care Centres are overwhelmed with people who wanted to be tested.
“We know that its not spreading widely in our community yet, and at some point, if it is spreading, we won’t be testing most people,” she said. “We’ll only be testing people who are in hospital or where there’s a cluster or where there’s an outbreak potential, so that we are able to manage those effectively.”
She says there are guides available online on how to look after yourself if you are sick.
“Across the province, they are working to try and manage some of these issues,” noted Henry. “It’s a lot of these logistics to try and support that and to make sure that only people who are prioritized and need to be tested are able to do that safely and quickly.”
Meanwhile, B.C.’s Health Minister says the province is working with doctors on ways to increase the number of COVID-19 tests for people, especially in remote areas of the province.
Adrian Dix says the message right now for people who are sick is to stay home and avoid contact with others.
“It’s a challenging circumstance. What we are trying to do is to provide ways by working with doctors all over B.C.,” he said. “If we were to open such sites, it’s not for people to go if they haven’t been referred there. We have to have tests for people who need tests, and those decisions will be made by medical professionals.”
People with symptoms of COVID-19 are asked to call their doctor’s office or 811 for more information. Citing a steep increase to the number of calls to 811, Dix says more resources are on the way to improve wait times.
As of Friday afternoon, there were just two people in hospital in acute care, but officials expect that number to increase over time. More than 4,300 tests were performed this week, “an extraordinary achievement by everyone involved in the system,” according to the Health Minister. In all, there have been 6,326 individuals in B.C. who have been tested.
B.C. has also urged doctors who have retired in the last two years to return to work if the spread of COVID-19 becomes widespread, with Dix saying the response has so far been “excellent.”
The biggest need is for physicians who have worked in emergency rooms and those who have experience running ventilators in intensive care units.
There have been at least 234 cases of COVID-19 cases in Canada so far, 73 in B.C. as of Saturday afternoon, with one death. It was a man in his 80s with underlying health conditions who lived at a North Vancouver care home.
