No images? Click here MEMO: COVID-19 Testing UpdateTO: Health Care Professionals in the Niagara Region FROM: Andrea Feller, MD, MS, FAAP, FACPM, Associate Medical Officer of Health REFERENCE: COVID-19 Testing Update DATE: June 2020 Dear Colleagues, In Niagara, positive results in truly asymptomatic people almost always are a result of past infection. Also, the vast majority of transmission has occurred from symptomatic cases, including in congregate settings.
We have and continue to experience many residents refusing recommended testing due to the discomfort of a prior test/swab experience, as part of government screening policies or because they just wanted to "know". At this point, it’s still an uncomfortable NP swab. Due to all of the above, we have strongly requested that the province change the directive that visitors of long-term care homes must have a negative COVID test result, within 14 days of visiting their loved ones. Additional Information We acknowledge that this may be a difficult conversation with your patients. We encourage you to discuss the risks and benefits of testing with your patients, and to support them in meeting requirements to visit loved ones in long-term care or other circumstances requiring testing. Public health is a great local resource for advice on this if you have questions about the test. We have reviewed all of our positive lab results in Niagara, traced, and investigated them. In addition, we have the experience from tens of thousands of negatives. If you have questions about how to get your patient tested please contact the COVID-19 Information Line at 905-688-8248 and press 7, then follow the prompts. Otherwise if you have further questions about this memo, please contact me directly. Thanks for all you are doing to help Niagarans get, and stay healthy. |