The Northwestern Health Unit says they continue to be proactive with COVID-19 testing and are among the top Northern Health Units in testing rates
Acting Medical Officer of Health Dr. Ian Gemmill says the testing rate in our region is higher than the provincial average at 3,200 tests per 100,000 people.
“We have had actually quite a low impact in our area from the novel coronavirus and we haven’t got any evidence yet of community spread. We feel our testing rates have been quite good.”
Dr. Gemmill says “We’re well on the way but we still have a number of tests that are still pending. I think the reason for this is that there is a bit of a backlog with all the testing being done at all of the long-term care and child care centres.”
Marilyn Herbacz is the Chief Executive Officer with the Northwestern Health Unit.
In an email addressing a local concern surrounding COVID-19 testing, she replied:
“The test turnaround time is dependent on several factors with the greatest challenge being transportation to the lab. Additionally most of our regions hospitals have the ability to process tests on site which would in fact lower the time significantly, however, there is a shortage of equipment and supplies provincially and globally so right now this is not possible as labs with the equipment only have very limited resources and large testing volumes are not possible. I can reassure you that our CEO and MOH are speaking to politicians in our region to bring all concerns forward. The NWHU is promoting that everyone with symptoms be tested. To ensure public safety, and to adhere to Ministry Guidelines, all individuals who have been tested and are awaiting test results are told that they must self-isolate until they hear from us with their results.”
A total of 2,615 tests have been conducted as of May 7th.
1,660 have come back negative, while 939 are still pending.
There have been 16 positive cases and all of those have been resolved.
