Test for COVID at home as Ontario braces for a rise of cases this winter
Ontario is significantly expanding COVID testing, including increased roles for pharmacies, a holiday blitz at malls, take-home PCR kits and rapid tests for Ontario students over the winter break.
At the same time, the province announced high schools will go back to regular semesters with four courses a day in February.
But elementary schools will be restricted to classroom cohorts for lunches and breaks when indoors. Only virtual schoolwide assemblies will be permitted starting in January or earlier.
The major risk that we had is going into the winter months," said Ontario's chief medical officer of health, Dr. Kieran Moore. We're anticipating our rates going up ... As well, we know we're heading into a social season where there will be much more interaction."
Scarsin Forecasting has also predicted cases will rise in Hamilton by the end of December, although the difference between the best- and worst-case scenarios is vaccination rates and the number of residents following pandemic rules.
Hamilton was one of only eight public health units to have decreasing case counts in the latest provincial modelling.
More than three-quarters of Ontario's public health units saw a rise in average daily cases during the weeks of Oct. 26 and Nov. 8 as part of projections done by the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table.
It is critical that we remain vigilant as we head into the winter," said Moore as the expanded testing was announced Thursday.
The wide-ranging plan includes:
Significantly more pharmacies will do PCR testing. Starting Thursday, pharmacies can also test those with symptoms as long as extra precautions are in place. Previously they only did testing for people with no symptoms.
Pharmacies will now have take-home PCR kits for those who don't want to do the test in store. The swab is done at home and returned to the pharmacy. Pharmacies will also start doing rapid antigen testing with results in 15 to 30 minutes. However, the rapid tests will be rolled out in Northern Ontario first.
Students will soon be able to get take-home PCR kits at school with the swab brought to a pharmacy or other participating location for processing. The tests are for those with symptoms or close contacts of confirmed cases.
Students in publicly funded schools will each be given five rapid antigen tests to take home over the winter break. They'll be asked to do the rapid test every Monday and Thursday starting Dec. 23 until they've used them all. Completing the tests is voluntary and not required to return to school.
Mobile testing teams will set up pop-up sites in high-traffic public spaces such as malls, holiday markets and large retail locations as part of a holiday blitz to test those without symptoms.
I want to be abundantly clear, testing is not a replacement for vaccination," said Education Minister Stephen Lecce.
In protecting the hard fought progress we have achieved, we've tried to make the experience of COVID testing as assessable as possible for parents and families with the aim fundamentally of keeping children in class."
He said elementary schools are getting further restrictions in the new year at the same time high schools are loosening them to allow for a bit more time to get the youth vaccination rollout underway."
Joanna Frketich is a reporter covering health for The Spectator. jfrketich@thespec.com