Photo courtesy of the Alberta Government

By Liam Verster

Enhanced COVID-19 Testing Measures

Hinshaw says more COVID-19 testing coming to Alberta, shares first results of serology research

Jul 31, 2020 | 10:05 AM

The Provincial Government has announced an expansion on a pilot project that made COVID-19 tests available to asymptomatic Albertans through a select few community pharmacies.

On Thursday, during the daily COVID-19 update, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer of Health, says the pilot project that was launched in June has proven to been a success.

“More than 10,000 people were safely tested at the pilot pharmacies in the last month. Based on this success, we’re expanding the program to any pharmacy that wants to offer testing, and is able to meet the safety requirements. Testing can begin as soon as the pharmacy is enrolled, and receives the necessary test supplies from Alberta Precision Labs.”

Hinshaw says while many people are excited to access more tests, and pharmacies are interested in providing the service, that the public must remain patient, as the process of enrolling in the program could take a few weeks.

“Pharmacies will need to complete an enrolment process to ensure patient safety and efficient distribution of supplies. It may take pharmacies in your area a little bit of time to enroll and begin testing. Some pharmacies may choose not to participate and that’s okay too, this program is voluntary.”

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Meanwhile, Alberta Health Services continues to provide testing across the province, and Hinshaw says work is underway to reduce wait times.

Hinshaw says a list of the pharmacies involved in the program can be found at the Alberta Blue Cross website. To date, just one pharmacy in Grande Prairie has joined the program, the Shoppers Drug Mart located in the Wapiti Centre.

The pharmacy testing is only for those who are asymptomatic, and anyone with symptoms is asked to be tested through AHS.

Hinshaw also encourages Albertans to use the online portal, My Health Records, to get fast results on their COVID-19 tests.

In the meantime, targeted research studies are ongoing on serology testing, which detects antibodies in the blood.

Hinshaw says while serology tests can help the government to understand how many people were previously infected with COVID-19, it cannot confirm whether someone is currently sick or contagious.

She adds that a positive serology test does not guarantee an immunity from the virus.

“That is why these tests are not being offered at an individual level, but rather at a population level, because it can tell us more about how the virus has spread in the population, and help us improve Alberta’s response.”

Hinshaw says the first estimates of the COVID-19 Residual Sero-study, which is being done by Alberta Precision Laboratories. Nearly 9,400 anonymous, randomized samples which were collected for other blood work in the first week of June have been analyzed in the lab, and of those samples, less than one percent showed the presence of antibodies.

“It is important to note that this is not necessarily a representative sample of the population, but it gives us an approximate idea of how many infections there have been, at least in a group that was seeking health care.”

She adds that if this percentage was taken and applied to the general population as an estimate, that would mean there would have been almost 36,000 cases of COVID-19 in Alberta as of May 20th, while the figures gathered through swab tests had only confirmed just over 6,000 cases.

If that one percent estimate were accurate, then through just swab testing, only 17 percent of cases would have been confirmed in the province. Hinshaw says though that figure may seem low, it’s actually quite good.

British Columbia’s serological study shows that just 12.5 percent of estimated cases by May were identified through swab testing. Meanwhile, serological studies in California, Spain and Sweden show between just 1.3 percent and 9.7 percent of cases were identified through swab tests.

Hinshaw says that the swab testing, along with the data on case numbers and hospitalizations, shows that Alberta’s early efforts to flatten the curve and limit the spread of the novel coronavirus were successful.