Anybody entering an ER must take COVID-19 test
Anyone who enters a hospital emergency room will now be tested for COVID -19, according to new government directives issued this week.
A letter sent to the directors of health care establishments on Thursday outlined new rules covering who should be tested for the virus in an effort to boost the overall number of tests, specifically toward people who might be asymptomatic carriers, and to prevent the spread of the virus to vulnerable patients.
The letter outlines 10 categories of people who will be tested. They are: Anyone who appears to have ■ symptoms of COVID -19.
Those who are quarantined ■ because of travel or possible contact with an infected person.
Asymptomatic patients who ■ have been admitted or who will be admitted within 48 hours to an acute care unit of the hospital, such as surgery (including day surgery) internal medicine, geriatrics, pediatrics and obstetrics.
■Anyone admitted to the emergency room. They don’t have to wait for the results before being admitted or discharged.
■Anyone asymptomatic upon admission to a long-term care home or a seniors’ residence, a palliative care unit, a psychological care centre, or a rehabilitation centre;
■Those without symptoms who are undergoing interventions like grafts, immunosuppressive procedures, intubation in the next 48 hours and a bronchoscope in the next 48 hours.
■Anyone without symptoms checking into a shelter, a group home, a halfway house or a youth centre.
■Health care workers as part of a systematic testing program.
■Those who have gotten over the virus, but who still need to be monitored.
■Health care workers leaving so-called hot zones (where patients are infected) before they return to work in cold zones.