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COVID-19 TESTING EXPANDED – Dr. Brendan Hanley, chief medical officer for the Yukon, said the key message is to ‘try and get testing numbers up’ at Friday’s press briefing at the Government of Yukon Main Administration Building cafeteria. Photo courtesy YUKON GOVERNMENT/ALISTAIR MAITLAND PHOTOGRAPHY
The Yukon is expanding testing criteria for COVID-19
The Yukon is expanding testing criteria for COVID-19 to include people without travel history and travellers experiencing a more general list of symptoms, in order to maintain high numbers of testing in the territory.
“As test volumes decrease, as we move out of flu season, we are simply seeing less people come in for testing,” Dr. Brendan Hanley, the Yukon’s chief medical officer of health, told a media briefing Friday afternoon.
The Yukon is still at 11 confirmed cases, with eight recovered and three active cases doing well at home. The territory has conducted 908 tests to date, with 23 pending results.
The number of tests conducted has dropped considerably since the start of pandemic mitigation in the Yukon.
Only 10 tests were completed in the last week and 27 tests completed in the week previous, according to numbers posted to yukon.ca.
“I think the key message is to try and get testing numbers up; we know that we will be unlikely to get back to the same proportion when we’re in the middle of flu season,” Hanley said.
Testing criteria are being expanded to include more symptoms in recent travellers, including a sore throat, headache, runny nose or nasal congestion, vomiting or diarrhea, fatigue, muscle aches and loss of smell or taste.
Previously, recent travellers were only tested with symptoms of cough, fever, chills and difficulty breathing.
“This will enable us to capture this group of testing earlier,” Hanley said.
“Although the respiratory symptoms continue to be the most consistent and important ones for identifying COVID, this illness can provide a wide variety of symptoms.”
People with no travel history but who are experiencing those respiratory symptoms can also be tested.
The self assessment tool on yukon.ca will be updated to reflect this wider net of testing requirements.
Hanley explained that the Yukon wants to maintain a high level of testing numbers, in order to catch any sign of community transmission and protect vulnerable populations.
He noted that health care practitioners can choose to test outside of those criteria, if they have reason to believe COVID-19 may exist in a patient.
A government press release issued Friday reminded Yukoners that doctors’ offices remain open.
People should call for regular health needs, such as renewing medication, dealing with chronic health conditions or addressing new concerns.
More information about health services support for communities during the pandemic has been uploaded to yukon.ca and include mental health services.
Last Wednesday, Hanley said the Yukon will be in some form of lockdown for the next 12 to 18 months, with some adjustments to restrictions. That is the expected timeline for a COVID-19 vaccination to become available.
On Friday, Hanley acknowledged the long timeline is startling for many Yukoners.
“I understand that when I talked about living the new reality the other day for the next 12 to 18 months that there were many people who were surprised or even upset to hear this,” Hanley said.
“But that does not mean we have to stay right where we are now with restrictions.
“If we continue to do what we’re doing with the right conditions and in collaboration with the rest of Canadian jurisdictions, there is much we can do to allow for some opening-up.”
Hanley said there is a long list of possibilities for reopening some services, as long as a plan is carefully organized and conditions are met.
This means the border will remain on lockdown to reduce the risk of virus importation, and gatherings of more than 10 will still be banned.
As well, all Yukoners should continue to follow physical distancing, hand-washing and isolation rules.
“This is part of our new normal that we can fully expect to continue over the next year to year and a half,” Hanley said.
The chief medical officer said he expects more information on reopenings will be available in the next two weeks.
Decisions for reopening will be made through a public health lens with economic considerations.
The government is reducing the number of medical briefings from three times to twice weekly, with the next one slated for Tuesday afternoon.
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Comments (10)
Up 2 Down 7
Juniper Jackson on May 1, 2020 at 7:08 pm
Yeah... just sayin'..but shouldn't the testing be increased at the start of an epidemic rather than when it's all over? If a test takes 45 min. now, then everyone coming down the highway should be tested at the border. Everyone getting off a plane, tested at the airport.
The only thing testing more Yukoners will tell you is if they had the virus, maybe thought it was a cold, but for what ever reason, stayed home, got better, resumed life. It will tell you if there was a community spread that went undetected because everyone got better. Which really isn't good news for those people cowering on their living room sofas.. or for the fear mongers. We will see what what the cat jumps, in this case, time really will tell.
Up 4 Down 8
Juniper Jackson on May 1, 2020 at 6:45 pm
I am not sure what is up with this world closure, but I have started to think it is not about health. Hanley doesn't know what it's about either.. so.. he gets a pass on this one. I'm sure he's doing his best..for what that's worth. People all over Canada are reading the same updated reports I am. Surely Hanley, Silver and the rest don't think people are so stupid that they are not researching and reading for themselves. When I read UV ray kills the virus in less than a second, but it could stay on the desk for 7 t0 10 days..I'm thinking why am in indoors and not at the park? https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200317-covid-19-how-long-does-the-coronavirus-last-on-surfaces
I am not at the park because I am so suspicious of everyone. If someone coughs in my face, I'm still vulnerable. This is a very good explanation of surfaces BTW. Says UV reports are wrong too. The bottom line is, people have had enough. Got enough room in the jail after you let all the prisoners out, for every driver in the Yukon? Didn't we get threatened with jail if we didn't do what we were told? (just my own observation, but people don't react well to threats). IT'S THE LAW. If the majority have just quietly gone about their lives, taking common sense precautions, they are saying, I am not going to abide by this law, this threat, this directive. The next best thing, is to give them what they want, as prudently and safely as possible. Open those camp grounds..those stalls are way more than 6 ft. apart.
People are so much happier with fresh air, sunshine, and everyone I know reacts well to common sense appeal for cooperation. BTW seniors.. Trudeau has released a statement that he will not be helping Senior's as he has other priorities. I really need to get on that welfare gravy train.
Up 5 Down 24
Salt on Apr 30, 2020 at 10:44 pm
@Yukon Cornelius
Give it a rest. The idea that it is necessary to test up to 20 million Americans a day is as plainly ridiculous as the idea global warming is going to kill us all in 5 years. Hysterical behaviour seems to be the norm these days.
Up 38 Down 4
Yukon Cornelius on Apr 30, 2020 at 1:11 pm
According to a recent report from a Harvard University panel of more than 45 experts in health, science and economics, the U.S. will need to administer 20 million Coronavirus tests each day by mid-summer of 2020 in order to reopen their economy in a safe fashion.
Given the fact that Canada's population is 11.5 per cent that of the USA's, Canada would have to scale up to 2.3 million Coronavirus tests each day by mid-summer in order to reopen its economy in a safe fashion. The bad news is that Canada currently lacks both testing infrastructure and testing capacity.
The reason for the cautious approach used by the Harvard University panel is the fact that the mean, global R0 (a value of how many people 1 infected person can infect each day during normal social interaction) of SARS-CoV-2 is 5.7 which equates to a doubling time of the number of new case every 6 - 7 days.
There is a general consensus among Epidemiologists that prior to opening (whether immediately or in phases) one's economy, the R0 value would have to decline to less than 1 and the then current number of new cases of COVID-19 would have to decline to a level that allows hospitals to run below capacity.
SARS-CoV-2 is approximately 3 times more contagious than the Spanish Flu which killed an estimated 20 - 50 million people worldwide in 1918.
As of March 3, 2020, the World Health Organization estimates the global Mortality Rate of Coronavirus at 3.4 per cent which is almost 3 1/2 times more lethal as Spanish Flu which in 1918 had a global Mortality Rate of 1 per cent.
Unless and until the Canadian Government, Provinces and Territories drastically ramp up testing and contact-tracing (i.e. figuring out each and every person each newly infected person had contact with in the prior 40 days which is the outlying incubation period for COVID-19), re-opening the economy (whether all at once, or in phases) would be irresponsible, as SARS-CoV-2 doesn't care about 'phases'. It only does what it does - spreads rapidly, silently and cryptically between people who, once infected, may have zero symptoms for up to 40 days, but are extremely contagious and in turn, spread the virus among people who they come in contact with.
SARS-CoV-2 is spread through micro droplets suspended in the air from people breathing, speaking, coughing and sneezing. Indoors, these micro droplets can stay suspended in the air for hours after an infected person leaves a room, so unless we test everybody and each indoor worker wears an N95 respirator, any other so-called 'plan' to re-open our economy is reckless and unnecessarily puts Yukoners' lives at risk.
Every business has a different workflow requirement. As we've seen during the past few weeks with a half-dozen large abattoirs shutting down in Canada and the U.S. (one of which is located in Edmonton and produces one-third of all the beef consumed in Canada, another, a Tyson Poultry plant which recently had to euthanize 2 million chickens due to hundreds of COVID-19 infections among its employees - leaving the plant with no one to slaughter and process the chickens), without aggressive testing of the workforce, the spread of SARS-CoV-2 will be rampant and devastating to an organization's workforce.
I can assure you that public health concerns aside, given the employer liability for failing to provide safe work environments for their employees, there isn't a reasoned CEO of any major firm who, in the absence of aggressive SARS-CoV-2 testing of its workforce, would be willing to take a chance with people's lives - yes, even under a 'phased' approach ineptly hatched by some hayseed politician.
At the end of the day, epidemiologically speaking, although a 'phased' approach sounds well-thought out and impressive, there is no shortage of inept individuals who, for political reasons will take a half-baked idea and attempt to dress it up as a 'strategy' in the hope of getting it past public scrutiny.
The first thing they teach you in Statistics is not to confuse presentation with rigour. In other words, just because someone has a 'three-pronged' approach or a '5-phase' plan with some pretty charts and graphs, doesn't mean that it's well thought out or supported by epidemiological science.
The message here is: 'Testing, Testing, Testing'.
In the mean time, please stay home and protect our elders.
SOURCE:
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/493722-us-needs-to-conduct-20-million-coronavirus-tests-per-day-to-fully-open
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/04/03/825639323/scientists-probe-how-coronavirus-might-travel-through-the-air
https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/7/20-0282_article
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/canada/
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-death-rate/#who-03-03-20
For calculation of Case Mortality Ratio, see 'Closed Cases' (Cases which had an outcome) and 'Deaths'.
Up 10 Down 16
JC on Apr 28, 2020 at 9:43 pm
Not to worry. This will all change when President Trump figures it all out. I'm sure, Justy is watching all his morning briefings.
Up 13 Down 7
Stephen on Apr 28, 2020 at 6:12 pm
@matthew you should enlighten us all what big bad Bill Gates and the other liberal elites have in store for all of us proles with this whole vaccine/microchip plan they hatched up back in 2010?
Up 10 Down 12
Fred Norris on Apr 28, 2020 at 3:36 pm
“.....The government is reducing the number of medical briefings from three times to twice weekly,...”
There is no need for the govt to brief us, as one just needs to listen to Bill Gates (neither a doctor nor a scientist) as he does the talk show circuit and parrots the same lines that Doc Hanley does (lock down the economy until we have the vaccine and tracking technology).
“...Decisions for reopening will be made through a public health lens with economic considerations....”
Translation:
We will continue to lock down the economy until you are all vaccinated and tracked
I’m noticing a pattern here. Thankfully, so is everyone else.
Up 20 Down 18
Crunch on Apr 28, 2020 at 8:58 am
Hanley is a puppet of the mainstream establishment. We are simply the side show following in line. If someone can make some sense out of this article let us know. Whoever said just wait until the end game was bang on.
Up 25 Down 16
Oops on Apr 27, 2020 at 10:31 pm
We don’t have any cases left and the government has no plan. People are getting tired of Hanley and Silver talking and not saying anything. They were able to control the narrative and now they can feel it slipping through their fingers.
Up 15 Down 17
Matthew on Apr 27, 2020 at 3:23 pm
Bill Gates in TED conference in 2010 ... "if we do a good job with vaccines we can REDUCE the population by 10-15%"... let that sink in, need I say more? LOL