COVID roundup: Arra says mass testing no 'panacea'

The local medical officer of health continues to be skeptical of mass testing for COVID-19 at a time when it’s touted by Ontario Premier Doug Ford and by many health experts.

Dr. Ian Arra’s concerns about mass testing include that this may cause the public to think mass testing of asymptomatic people “is a panacea” but it doesn’t take into account the likelihood of false positive test results.

“The media in big cities seems to have made a case that testing everybody left, right and centre is a good thing, which it’s not. It really has to be organized in a strategy to be able to infer from it,” Arra said.

Arra allowed that long-term care mass testing “showed the public we have capacity,” to test a lot, which he said alleviated some public anxiety among those who questioned it.

And opening up testing in the community to include asymptomatic people, as the province is now doing, at least primarily inconveniences only the person who receives a false positive test – which is expected because of testing frailties, Arra said in an interview.

But so far during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, false-positive test results in five Grey-Bruce long-term care homes occurred after the province ordered all staff and residents to be tested earlier this month. Two staff and three residents got false positives.

As a result, hundreds of residents were needlessly confined to their rooms and staff was required to adopt stricter virus-transmission protocols, until follow-up test results were available which revealed they really weren’t infected with COVID.

This added anxiety and required dedication of resources to address the safety threat indicated by the supposed outbreaks, he said.

The affected homes were Sepoy Manor in Lucknow, Golden Dawn Long-Term Care Home in Lion’s Head, Parkview Manor in Chesley, Grey Gables in Markdale and Georgian Heights in Owen Sound.

Arra noted all of the false-positive cases were asymptomatic. He said in a news release Tuesday there “have been no false positives declared in people that have had symptoms.”

Indeed, the test is “less reliable when testing people without symptoms,” which becomes apparent when testing large numbers of symptomless people.

However, a negative test result is “extremely reliable,” especially in asymptomatic people.

Arra’s release said “testing asymptotic is warranted in certain situations, such as to address research questions and generate research hypotheses.”

He added in an interview: “Testing people without symptoms could be warranted; we know this disease can be in people with no symptoms, people who are shedding the disease. However, when you do it would lower the validity of the test,” as the local long-term care home testing found.

Arra said targeted, controlled testing of groups of asymptomatic people in higher transmission-risk places like grocery stores is the better way to expand testing, and this is the latest testing directive issued by the province.

If 10 staff in each of 20 grocery stores were tested five times over 15 days, perhaps questions could be answered that might not have been using a less controlled testing strategy, he said.

Ontario will be making public new testing policy details in the coming days which aims to test more asymptomatic people to identify sources of virus spread.

Ford called on the crowd which flouted physical distancing public health guidance in Trinty Bellwoods Park Saturday in Toronto to get tested.

But Dr. Barbara Yaffe, the associate chief medical officer for Ontario, instead advised them to self-monitor and isolate for 14 days, then get tested if they’re concerned.

The most recent provincial guidance calls for testing includes those showing at least one symptom among a list which includes fever, difficulty breathing, fatigue, sore throat, runny nose, diarrhea and more.

It also now calls for “risk-based” testing of people concerned they’ve been exposed to COVID-19, through contact with a positive case or suspicion they were.

This includes people who through their jobs, including essential workers such as in health care, grocery stores and food processing plants, are at risk of exposure to the virus which can be transmitted even by infected people showing no symptoms.

The provincial guidance includes the assurance that “No Ontarian who is symptomatic or who is concerned they have been exposed to COVID-19 will be declined a test at an assessment centre … .”

There are three COVID-19 assessment centres, one each in Owen Sound, Hanover and Kincardine and some family doctors do COVID-19 testing. In-home testing is done by Grey County paramedics in certain cases, as does the Grey Bruce Health Unit staff for eligible people who call 1-800-263-3456, ext. 3000.

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Grey-Bruce had no new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours as of 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, according to the Grey Bruce Health Unit’s daily situation report. Eighty-four people have recovered. No one has died and no one is currently in hospital.

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Saugeen Shores has postponed Canada Day fireworks, which will tentatively be set off instead on Sept. 6 in Southampton during the Labour Day weekend, provided restrictions on large gatherings have been lifted, a town news release said.

That event is to be presented by the town and the Saugeen Shores Chamber of Commerce, a town news release said. They also “hope to work with local community groups to deliver some opportunities to celebrate the nation on July 1.”

The town council will vote at its next meeting whether to allow restaurants or retail space to expand into outdoor areas on municipal property to ensure physical distancing. The proposal also would waive all fees for businesses this year, the news release said.

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The federal government announced up to $9.2 million more to fund up to 700 new jobs for youth aged 15 to 30 on farms, “to assist with labour shortages brought on by the pandemic,” a news release said on Tuesday.

The positions are particularly for “youth facing barriers to employment, with job experience in agriculture that will provide career-related work experience.”

The Youth Employment and Skills Program will provide employers with up to 50 per cent of the cost of hiring a Canadian youth up to $14,000. Indigenous applicants and those applicants hiring a youth facing barriers are eligible for funding of up to 80 per cent of their costs.

Eligible applicants include producers, agri-businesses, industry associations, provincial and territorial governments, Indigenous organizations and research facilities. Employers may apply for this funding retroactive to April 1, 2020, with projects to be completed by March 31, 2021.

Application forms are available through the Youth Employment and Skills Program, or to get more information, contact aafc.yesp-pecj.aac@canada.ca or call 1-866-452-5558.

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Beginning June 1, garbage bag tags will again be required on all bags set out for curb-side pickup in Meaford.

On March 30, Meaford began allowing residents to put out one untagged bag per week, if they were unable to purchase bag tags due to self-isolation related to COVID-19

Council decided Monday it was time to reinstate regular use of bag tags.

Residents may put out a maximum of three tagged bags weighing under 40 pounds each, which should be at the curb by 7 a.m., a municipal news release said.