Private company to provide take-home kits for $150 apiece
The Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) is looking to the private sector to clear a growing backlog of COVID-19 testing.
The SHA announced Tuesday it is partnering with Quantum Genetix, a Saskatoon lab selling COVID-19 test kits to people who don't feel sick, but need proof of a negative test to work or travel.
The take-home testing kits cost $150 apiece. General manager Heather Deobald said the laboratory can deliver results in 24 to 48 hours.
“I think these are unprecedented times, and from our perspective we're just trying to alleviate the current system pressure within the government laboratories,” Deobald said.
Officials hope the partnership can take some pressure off the burdened public testing system; the SHA'S labs process thousands of tests from every corner of the province every day.
The province had a goal of being able to process 4,000 COVID-19 tests daily in the fall. That number was exceeded twice in November.
While the SHA aims to inform patients of positive test results within 24 to 48 hours, people who test negative may wait longer to get their results.
A source familiar with the matter said the provincial health authority is also considering limiting laboratory work to essential tests only, as was the case in April.
“Our Laboratory Medicine team has been working incredibly hard to provide test results in a timely manner,” SHA executive director of laboratory medicine Lenore Howey said in a statement.
“However, given the high demand for testing and our focus on prioritizing testing for people with symptoms before people or travelers (sic) without symptoms, it's been challenging to provide timely results for asymptomatic travelers (sic), especially within the tight timelines required by airlines and international destinations,” Howey wrote.
Deobald said the company first reached out to the SHA in April. It has since acquired a medical laboratory licence and has diverted all its resources to COVID-19 testing.
Business is already booming. Hours after the partnership became public, Deobald said travellers and businesses of all kinds had reached out.
She said the company can process 350 tests a day, with a potential to scale up.
Deobald said she hopes the take-home kits will be a convenient alternative for people who need a negative test result to travel, go to work or reopen their business.
“I don't look at it as jumping the queue (for testing) because our testing is only for asymptomatic residents,” she said.
If a client tests positive, an SHA release said the person's information will be forwarded to the health authority and the results would be verified at the Roy Romanow Provincial Laboratory in Regina.
The SHA said it's also interested in supporting local businesses who want to buy their own COVID-19 testing platform to routinely test their employees.
“Interested employers can pursue a collaborative agreement with SHA Laboratory Medicine to ensure quality testing and reporting of results on their platforms to meet lab licensing, regulatory, reporting and data capture requirements in a coordinated agreement. This will assist in keeping employees safe as well as maintaining business continuity,” reads a release from the SHA.