Testing lessons should be welcome

Recently, when asked why his province had fared so well combating COVID-19 compared to Nova Scotia, New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs responded that they had acted two weeks earlier. Their proactive approach was wise. And looking back over the last few months their results are indisputable.

Even after being dealt a new challenge last week they again responded quickly, by performing 2,290 tests in a single day. For comparison, Nova Scotia’s single day high was 1,476 tests, with a capacity of tests per day that has been confirmed by Nova Scotia public health to be around 1600.

Testing has always been the key to beating this virus.

Nova Scotians have worked hard over the past three months to flatten the curve. We can’t let all of our hard work go to waste. As we reopen and start to rebuild our economy, we must make sure that our testing strategy reflects our new reality. As we turn our mind to a second or third wave, we know that more variables will make the job more difficult for public health.

There were mistakes made during our shutdown. Allowing long-term care staff who had travelled out of province to continue working without self-isolating comes to mind. Dr. Samir Sinha, Director of Geriatrics at Sinai Health and University Health Network in Toronto, noted that “Nova Scotia was a little more reactive than other provinces” and took precautions “after things really started to get bad.”

As we reopen, we must be proactive and avoid similar mistakes in testing.

We know that conducting testing while the majority of Nova Scotians are at home, is vastly different from doing it while those same Nova Scotians are spending their days riding public transit, at their place of work, or picking children up from daycare. Those returning to work and their daily activities will all interact with dozens and hundreds more people per day than before.

Bottom line, we need to be ready to test more. We need to make it an inevitability for most as we move forward. In May, we performed an average of 447 tests per day. At that rate it would take almost six years to test every Nova Scotian.

All throughout the pandemic, medical professionals in Nova Scotia urged robust testing and as we prepare to reopen, those calls remain. All around the world, innovative approaches to testing are emerging. We must learn from the lead they are setting. We must be proactive. This is no time for the status quo.

Scientific American recently highlighted the exploration of group testing in Germany, Israel and the United States where 20 swabs are processed in one test. If the “test” is negative, everyone is negative. If it is positive, then those 20 individuals are tested separately to identify the actual positive case. This is their way to zero-in and focus resources in the most effective way. Do we have a similarly innovative approach? Remember in Nova Scotia, over 43,000 tests were completed and 41,944 of those were negative. Imagine how quick we could test our population if we tested 20 times faster.

Can we learn from New Brunswick to get our testing ramped up to a higher level?

Can we learn from Ontario and make testing available in pharmacies?

Can we learn from Alberta and allow asymptomatic people to do drop-in testing?

As Nova Scotians, we must advocate for methodical community testing so we know the status of the virus and are able to quickly identify concentration areas, and make that information public.

There are many moving parts when it comes to keeping people safe and ensuring a successful, longterm reopening but one thing is obvious: we must have a robust plan for testing, it must be innovative and it must be implemented immediately.

If given the choice, I prefer action over inaction. This is not a time for the status quo.