P.E.I.’s chief public health officer reported no new cases of COVID-19 after a day of lengthy lineups at testing facilities throughout the province.
In a media briefing on Tuesday, Dr. Heather Morrison welcomed the response to calls for immediate COVID-19 testing for all individuals aged 20-29 within the Charlottetown area.
Calling the response from young Islanders “tremendous”, Morrison said over 2,000 individuals were tested on Monday in P.E.I.
She said lab results for 1,000 of these individuals had been returned as of noon on Tuesday.
But Morrison revised the CPHO testing recommendation, asking for Charlottetown-based individuals in their 20s who live with “multiple roommates” within the same age group, who work in crowded environments such as fast-food restaurants or who have COVID-like symptoms to be tested first.
Those 20- to 29-year-olds who do not meet these criteria do not have to be tested right away.
"Those who are not falling into one of these categories and who do not have symptoms, then maybe you could just wait a few days before you need to come in to be tested," Morrison said.
Lineups of up to six and seven hours were reported at multiple rapid-testing locations in P.E.I. on Monday.
Between Saturday and Monday, 11 news cases were reported in what public health officials called an outbreak.
In response, the province imposed two weeks of new public health restrictions related to the outbreak, including shutting down in-room dining at restaurants, closing four Charlottetown high schools and ordering gyms and libraries to close.
Monday’s one-day total of 2,000 tests appears to have broken testing records on P.E.I. since the beginning of the pandemic.
According to Public Health Agency of Canada data, the highest daily total of tests conducted was 1,207 on Nov. 27, following a public exposure alert at two downtown restaurants and at an Atlantic Superstore location in Charlottetown.
Health P.E.I. chief of nursing Marion Dowling said the province opened an additional rapid-testing site in Stratford on Monday and has plans to open two other Charlottetown testing sites at Holland College and UPEI.
Dowling said the Holland College clinic will be open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. today, while a clinic at UPEI is expected on Thursday.
Dowling said employers should be aware that workers in this age group who do not have symptoms and have been tested do not need to self-isolate while awaiting results.
"Sending them to an immediate test prior to coming to work is not necessary and is contributing to our backlog," Dowling said, adding that individuals should expect a 72-hour wait to receive test results “and potentially a little longer if we see the numbers continue”.
Morrison said it was too early to tell if the approach of mass testing of 20- to 29-year-olds has been effective.
She said the focus is to re-prioritize testing for individuals who have symptoms.
"I think it's probably too early ... to say if our targeted approach has identified a lot of additional positives because I think it's going to take a number of days to determine that," she said.
