Health Minister Tyler Shandro (Photo: Government of Alberta)

By Shaun Penner

Homeless Shelters, too

Province expanding rapid testing program to long-term care homes, rural hospitals

Dec 17, 2020 | 10:27 AM

Starting Friday, the province is expanding its COVID-19 rapid testing pilot program to long-term care homes and designated supportive living facilities, homeless shelters and rural hospitals across Alberta.

Beginning December 18, rapid point-of-care testing will begin at long-term care and designated supportive living facilities in the Edmonton Zone using dedicated mobile testing centres, which will then begin in the Calgary Zone starting next week.

The province says mobile testing centres first focus will be on outbreak sites in those areas, before expanding to long-term care and designated supportive living facilities outside of Alberta’s two largest population centres.

“Bringing rapid point-of-care testing directly to the locations where it can help protect the health of the most vulnerable Albertans is an important addition to our provincial testing system,” said Health Minister Tyler Shandro, adding the tests will be used on individuals who are within the first week of showing symptoms of COVID-19, where he says these tests have their highest level of effectiveness.

Shandro says more than 1,000 people have received the rapid tests at the first assessment centres and hospital locations involved in the pliot, including 76 positive cases who were notified within hours, not days.

Work is underway, according to the province, to bring the rapid-testing program to homeless shelters in the coming weeks. This after the province began piloting the testing program at the Calgary Drop-in Centre on December 7, as well as the Edmonton Isolation Centre.

Beyond that, further expansion is planned to roll out these tests to 25 rural hospitals, including the Peace River hospital, which was the lone hospital chosen in northwestern Alberta.

“These new sites were chosen based on their location, in rural and remote communities, based on transport time to a lab that processes rapid tests, the volume of tests required and the populations need for them.”

Shandro added expanding the rapid testing pilot program will help reduce the strain on centralized lab services, and help better contain the spread of COVID-19 in these high-risk sites.

“Alberta Precision Laboratories and Alberta Health Services have undertaken significant work to evaluate the effectiveness of rapid point-of-care testing systems and how they can add the most value to our province-wide COVID-19 testing program,” said Mauro Chies, the board chair for Alberta Precision Labs.

“Our integrated provincial lab service allows us to quickly implement and scale up the use of new equipment and processes for the benefit of all Albertans.”

The province says Alberta Health Services has received more than 800,000 rapid tests from Health Canada.