As COVID-19 cases skyrocket in the Kingston region, public health continues to urge people to stay home from work and school — and get tested.
However, critiques are rising across the province and locally about how much time it can take to get tested and how much time people can take off from work while they wait.
“I wonder from an equity perspective how is it that we can rest one of our main strategies for beating this fourth wave on something that people are essentially economically priced out of doing,” Coun. Robert Kiley asked of Dr. Piotr Oglaza at Tuesday night’s council meeting.
To support the request to stay home and get tested, the provincial government announced Wednesday that the COVID-19 three-day paid sick day program that was to end in December will be extended to July 2022.
But what if people need more than three days? This was the question put to Dr. Piotr Oglaza Tuesday when he presented to the council.
“It’s a really significant issue, something that has already been a part of the advocacy of many public health units and we need to continue to do this, fully realizing that there’s limitations to what individuals can do in this community,” he said.
He added that in his previous position as medical officer of health for Hastings Prince Edward Public Health, he wrote to the province several times about this issue. He plans to continue to do so as he leads KFL&A through the remainder of the pandemic.
As cases in the region reached over 439 on Wednesday, Dr. Oglaza and the health unit have been beating the drum that any mild cold-like symptoms could be evidence of COVID-19, and have been urging people to stay home and get tested.
But, with increasing cases has come increased demand for testing, with some people having to wait days to even book, let alone get their results.
Kingston Health Sciences Centre has tried to alleviate some of that demand through pop-up clinics that provide free PCR testing.
Also, the province has opened rapid antigen testing through pharmacies to the tune of $40 each, but those require booking ahead as well. As of Thursday morning, the earliest appointment at a Kingston-area Shoppers Drug Mart was next Tuesday.
Not only are wait times an issue, but Kiley argued at the council that the price of these rapid tests is prohibitive for a certain portion of the population.
“It’s inequitable health-care if you’re going to get better health-care because you can pay for it,” he argued
Oglaza didn’t directly comment on Kiley’s statement but noted that if anyone is symptomatic, rapid testing is not recommended over the lab testing done at local assessment centres, since the latter is more effective.
Still, he understands having access to these tests will help address some of the testing demands the region is currently facing. He said school-aged children are being given free rapid tests and the health unit is currently exploring options to someday provide take-home test kits for COVID-19 as well.
“That’s something that may become part of a broader strategy in this region. And we’ve done that successfully for other infections like sexually transmitted infections, people do pick up swabs from public health that they can then drop them off for testing it,” he said.
For now, the medical officer of health acknowledged that there are significant “gaps” in the system that affect accessibility to COVID-19 testing and time off, and he promised to continue to advocate for better options from the province.