COVID-19 testing now available to anyone with symptoms in Vancouver Coastal region

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — In order to help measure and contain the spread of COVID-19, testing is now available to anyone in the Vancouver Coastal Health region with symptoms.

Backlogs have been cleared and labs are equipped to run thousands of tests a day with results usually available within a day, according to  Dr. Mark Lysyshyn, Vancouver Coastal Health’s deputy chief medical health officer.

He says identifying cases is crucial in the event that virus-related restrictions are lifted. It’s also possible to open it up to more people now that hospitalizations are down and the rate of transmission has slowed.

“Now we’re in the enviable position that hopefully, we can detect the cases that are out there and confirm … that we’re still managing to control the outbreak,” he explains.

“We want to start to get ready to open up society again, and in order to do that we have to make sure that anybody who might have COVID can get a test and can be diagnosed.”

Anyone in the VCH region with cold, flu or COVID19-like symptoms can now be assessed for and get a #COVID19 test. Testing can be done through a primary care provider, walk-in clinic, urgent + primary care centre or community collection centre.

More: https://t.co/MKDoG4tSGT pic.twitter.com/d7jlL2yn3D

— Vancouver Coastal Health (@VCHhealthcare) April 27, 2020

There is no risk of running out of tests, according to Lysyshyn.

This is partially due to the fact that fewer people are getting sick.

“We do know that rates of respiratory illness have dropped dramatically. When we were having the initial wave of COVID we were still in the influenza season. So there will still a lot of cough, cold and influenza viruses circulating. Rates of respiratory illness have really dropped and so even though the testing criteria are open wide right now we’re just not seeing a lot of tests needing to be done.”

With elective surgeries cancelled, and some clinics closed labs are running fewer tests overall.

“A lot of parts of the healthcare system have been put on hold so that we had enough excess capacity to deal with the cases that were going to come in and need hospitalization and complex care,” he says.

“There’s a large capacity to do thousands of tests within our region per day and we’re not coming close to doing all those tests right now.”

Tests are available at urgent and primary care centres, walk-in clinics, family doctor’s offices, and several dedicated sites for healthcare workers.

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Lysyshyn says people without symptoms don’t need to be tested, but the list of symptoms potentially associated with the novel coronavirus is long.

People with fever, cough, shortness of breath, sore throat, runny nose, nasal congenstion, loss of smell, headache, muscle aches, fatigue or loss of appetite can request testing.

As of Monday, almost 80,000 tests have been done in the province where the testing rate is lower than the national average.

About 23,000 tests have been done in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, which has recorded 795 positive cases.

The region includes Vancouver, Richmond, North and West Vancouver and along the Sea-to-Sky Highway, Sunshine Coast, and B.C.’s Central Coast.

A list of testing sites is available on the BCCDC website. 

With files from Paul James