The Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) announced on Wednesday that it’s expanding criteria for COVID-19 testing next week.
People in the province can start calling Healthline 811 on May 25 to determine if they can be referred for testing based on the expanded guidelines.
“The number one reason why the expanded testing criteria will be put in place next week is so that we can prepare the staff at 811 Healthline for the proper understanding and workflow associated with the expanded targeted guidelines because they are extensive and until that’s in place, it would be essentially a free for all,” SHA CEO Scott Livingstone said.
“The expanded testing criteria will continue to evolve, as will the work we’ll do as an organization to prepare our staff, physicians and all those coming into our facilities to understand how they will access testing as we do this.”
Additional expanded testing guidelines provided by SHA are as follows:
- Testing available to anyone working outside the home, including those currently working, or returning to work as part of the Reopen Saskatchewan plan, who desire a test;
- Testing immunocompromised asymptomatic individuals such as cancer patients, in advance of undergoing immunosuppressive procedures such as chemotherapy;
- Testing all patients upon admission or in advance of a planned admission to an acute care hospital for a stay anticipated to be greater than 24 hours. This includes all expectant mothers entering a health facility to give birth;
- Increased testing for populations that are homeless or living in other vulnerable settings;
- Testing available to all health care workers caring for immunocompromised patients; and
- Mobile testing for anyone who desires a test in high volume work settings (factories, industrial settings, etc.).
“There will still be policies and processes, especially with respect to how we’ll test patients inside our health care facilities in the upcoming days and weeks… We expect the full implementation of testing to occur in phases.”
On Wednesday, the province reported 21 new confirmed cases of COVID-19. Sixteen of the cases were in the far north region, including nine in La Loche and six in Beauval.
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“We knew we were going to find cases because of the work that’s being done. I’m frankly not surprised by an increase in cases, especially in the far north and north where we’ve expanded our testing criteria and the work that’s being done on the ground to do risk assessments,” Livingstone said.
On Wednesday, the Saskatchewan Health Ministry said 41,951 COVID-19 tests have been performed in the province. It added that as of May 18, the province’s per capita rate was 32,410 people tested per million population, while the national rate was 35,570.
“The testing strategy that’s been deployed throughout the pandemic in Saskatchewan has served us very well, including how we’ve been able to adapt our testing strategy to deal with concerns on the ground, particularly with outbreaks in hospitals and/or in the community, as in the case of La Loche,” Livingstone said.
“Regardless of what the number of tests is, whether it’s a thousand or it’s 10,000 over the next month… we’ll evaluate those tests to see how useful they are with respect to helping us find COVID cases that we were unaware of.”
Livingstone said with the expanded testing criteria, they hope to see a significant increase in numbers but there is no provincial target to be met.
Questions about COVID-19? Here are some things you need to know:
Symptoms can include fever, cough and difficulty breathing — very similar to a cold or flu. Some people can develop a more severe illness. People most at risk of this include older adults and people with severe chronic medical conditions like heart, lung or kidney disease. If you develop symptoms, contact public health authorities.
To prevent the virus from spreading, experts recommend frequent handwashing and coughing into your sleeve. They also recommend minimizing contact with others, staying home as much as possible and maintaining a distance of two metres from other people if you go out.
For full COVID-19 coverage from Global News, click here.
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