The province has ramped up its testing capacity in response to increased demand and long wait times for testing and results.
Public Health reported a whopping 3,500 tests conducted on Monday, the largest number of tests conducted in a single day in at least a year. Over 1000 tests were conducted in Zone 1 alone.
But with record high daily new case counts (503 new cases were reported in the past week) and cold and flu season still blossoming, demand for tests appears to be keeping pace.
On Wednesday morning, Mount Allison provost Jeff Hennessy emailed staff and students warning that some courses may move temporarily online due to the scheduling impacts of school and daycare closures and delays in COVID-19 testing.
The Sackville assessment centre will remain open part-time, but will have extended hours this week, says Jean Daigle, the VP Community for the Horizon Health Network. The centre was open 10 hours on Monday, and will be open again for 10 hours on Wednesday and Friday of this week. Staff are performing more than 100 swabs per day, says Daigle.
He says the network is still seeing a high demand for testing in Sackville. Priority bookings are being seen within 24 hours, but most others are being seen within 72 hours. It’s not clear if that time gap counts the time from when a test is requested online, or from when public health returns a call to book a test.
In Nova Scotia, residents can book a test directly online, and so skip the step of waiting for a phone call from public health to then book a test. CHMA has enquired as to the rationale for the extra call back step in the New Brunswick system, but have yet to hear back.
“EXPLORING OTHER TESTING PROCESSES”
In the meantime, Daigle says Horizon is, “exploring other testing processes” to assist in meeting the increased demand for tests.
At a press conference following a meeting of the Atlantic premiers on Tuesday, Premier Blaine Higgs indicated that rapid tests, also known as point of care tests, might become available in school communities, but the timeline he mentioned was within “weeks.”
“It is being considered and we have a lot of tests and availability of test kits,” said the Premier. “We’re looking at how we can best utilize that. And I would say that in the coming weeks, you’ll get information in that regard.”
“We do see it as a major way to to allow us to test kids and keep them in school,” said Higgs.
Rapid tests have been available for use by businesses to make testing available to employees for several weeks now. The kits are being distributed by chambers of commerce across the province.
CHMA reported last week that discussions were underway in the Department of Health on the possible use of rapid tests for K-12 schools and child-care facilities. Spokesperson Bruce Macfarlane says a testing program was set up early last week at Southern Victoria High School in Perth Andover for students who have not been able to book a test through an assessment centre.
New Brunswick currently has just over 1.1 million rapid tests in its possession, distributed by the federal government. Less than one quarter (22.67%) have been distributed, and just 2.1% have been used, according to federal reporting. That’s the lowest percentage of tests used among Canadian provinces who reported, outside of the Yukon, which has used no rapid tests to date.
THE PROS AND CONS OF RAPID TESTING
The debate over the use of rapid tests usually centres on their reliability. Rapid tests are considered less reliable than the lab based tests currently used by New Brunswick Public Health, on the basis that they can miss low levels of virus. They are designed to detect high viral loads, and as Nature writer Giorgia Guglielmi put it in February, “are thought of as tests of infectiousness, not of infection.”
Harvard epidemiologist Michael Mina has long been a proponent of rapid antigen testing and told Slate last week that the reliability of testing depends on the goal of the testing.
“If our goal is instead to identify people who are currently transmitting the virus to other people,” Mina told Slate podcast host Lizzie O’Leary, “then actually the rapid test is much more accurate. The important thing is they’re specific, meaning they are only going to turn positive when you’re actually actively transmitting the virus. If the goal is to detect infectious people, then a rapid test is actually much more accurate, not less.”
A person with a low viral load (that could be missed by a rapid antigen test) might be about to recover from COVID-19, and no longer be infectious, or they might be in the earliest stage of COVID-19, and about to become more infectious. And that’s where the big concern lies with widespread rapid testing: people who get the all clear from a rapid antigen test might get a false sense of security, and then spread the virus unwittingly.
Mina’s solution to that problem is communication, and appropriate use of rapid tests. He says public health authorities need to make sure people understand what their results mean, that they do or do not currently carry a heavy viral load of coronavirus. And then he proposes the tests be used frequently. For schools with cases, he recommends daily testing for students and staff after a case is detected.
WHAT DIFFERENCE COULD RAPID TESTING MAKE?
It’s easy to see how such a program could also roll out at, say, a nursing home like the Drew, in Sackville, where at least three people have died from COVID-19 since a first case was detected on September 13. It took days for all residents and staff to get results back from public health’s PCR testing. It’s impossible to say what would be different if all residents and staff were immediately tested with rapid antigen tests starting on September 14, and daily after that.
It’s less impossible to say what access to rapid antigen testing could mean for the Port Elgin Regional School, which has been in online learning mode since Thursday, September 23, due to the number of students and staff self-isolating. If a daily rapid test program were in place, the number of those isolating as a precaution would certainly drop.
Rapid tests are being used for surveillance-style regular testing in New Brunswick in some cases. Mount Allison University is using rapid tests for those staff, faculty or students who opted not to get vaccinated, and instead agreed to remain masked at all times and submit to testing twice per week.
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