Experts examine how COVID-19 testing fits into Canada’s present and future – CBC

While Omicron has hurt access to PCR testing, we could still see expanded capacity, one expert says

Jan 17, 2022

Since the earliest days of the pandemic, COVID-19 testing has never been less accessible for the general public — and one expert says the testing tides have changed for the foreseeable future.

“This is the beginning of the end of testing as we know it, or as we’ve seen it before,” said Brenda Wilson, a public health physician and dean of community health at Memorial University of Newfoundland.

Wilson, who was a member of the federal government’s former COVID-19 Testing and Screening Expert Advisory Panel, noted jurisdictions across North America are changing rules on widespread testing for COVID-19.

In Ontario, publicly funded PCR testing has been strained since before the holidays, and the government has since announced only priority groups will get tested.

“We have shifted pretty much to a much more selective testing,” said Wilson. “With Omicron being so incredibly transmissible, and having spread to so many people, there’s really no way that any of the health system can keep up with … the way we’ve done it so far.”

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/end-of-covid-19-testing-question-1.6313426