With start of school approaching, can Quebec handle testing if there are outbreaks?
When Montreal bars saw outbreaks, some waited several days for COVID-19 test results
When David Battistuzzi started to feel under the weather last month, he thought it best to get tested for COVID-19. But he happened to develop his symptoms the same week an outbreak linked to Montreal bars led to a sharp increase in demand for tests.
It took him several days just to get into a testing site and then an additional six days before he received his negative result.
Battistuzzi, whose son is entering Grade 1 in Montreal this fall, said he is concerned that if an outbreak were to happen at his son's school, delays in testing could keep some parents home from work for weeks.
"They keep saying testing is the most important thing for controlling [the virus] and it would be nice if we could actually get the results back."
"We want the entire process to be efficient, from the test itself to obtaining the result, so the wait time is as short as possible," Marjaurie Côté-Boileau, spokesperson for Health Minister Christian Dubé, said in an email Monday.
But still, some are wondering what will happen to those wait times once the school year begins.
While additional testing sites eventually opened in Montreal at the time of the bar outbreaks, Battistuzzi wants to see a more proactive approach for the school year.
"Testing is a big question for a lot of us and I hope the government maybe gets a little pressure and ramps up things because we don't feel like they're ready."
Dr. David Buckeridge, an epidemiologist at McGill University's School of Population and Global Health, said there will be challenges when it comes to testing capacity as the fall approaches.
He said the province should consider prioritizing rapid testing for schools, in order to avoid scenarios where entire classrooms of students would be forced to stay home.
"Ultimately, the problem is schools are not isolated from the community. They're really in the community," he explained.
"So if we have a lot of pressure for testing in schools, we're going to have a lot of pressure for testing in the community probably at the same time."
He said if people have to wait several days for their results, it might dissuade some from getting tested in the first place and that becomes dangerous.
And when people go to work or out into the public while they wait for their test results, they risk increasing community spread.
"You should be self-isolating at home, awaiting your results. That's something that people for the most part are willing to do if we're talking about a day or so, but if we're talking about longer, it becomes harder," he said.
"You're waiting for that test result to change your behaviour."
Some regional health authorities say they're ready
Despite criticism from the opposition, as well as other provinces making testing part of their plans for a return to school, the Quebec government is not devising a provincewide strategy for testing or contact tracing in case of a school outbreak.
Instead, each region will be expected to come up with its own plan.
"The regional health authorities are ready and can adapt to intervene in the establishments if need be. Because of the improvement in the epidemiological situation, we are confident that students in Quebec can go to school safely," the Quebec Health Ministry told CBC News in an email Friday.
A few regions have developed their plans for the back-to-school season. In Laval for instance, the CISSS said it has enough testing capacity in case of school outbreaks, but said it is ready to set up additional testing facilities if need be.
As for the West Island, the CIUSSS de l'Ouest-de-l'Île-de-Montréal said it is in the process of training some 40 nurses and employees to take care of testing in schools.
In the Eastern Townships, the CIUSSS de l'Estrie said it has already been setting up mobile testing clinics whenever an outbreak emerges, and will continue to do the same for schools.
With files from Simon Nakonechny
