Niagara COVID-19 testing being under reported
Region has one of highest testing rates per capita in Ontario, says think tank
The number of COVID-19 tests conducted in Niagara has been under reported by the thousands as a result of a patchwork reporting system that leaves significant holes in local pandemic data, The St. Catharines Standard has learned.
While the Niagara Health hospital system reports daily the number of tests conducted at its St. Catharines and Niagara Falls assessment centres — a figure which is now more than 10,600 tests — the number of tests being done at other clinics, longterm-care homes and by family doctors is not being reported.
Niagara acting medical officer of health Dr. Mustafa Hirji said while the results of all positive tests are reported to the public health depart
ment, the conducting of tests is not.
As a result, not even the public health department knows exactly how many tests have been done in Niagara.
Hirji said while Niagara Health is responsible for the majority of local COVID-19 tests, there are “thousands” of tests being done outside the hospital system.
The first indication of just how many more tests have been under reported in Niagara came last week in a report by ICES, a non-profit research group that analyzes Ontario health data.
Pulling information from the Ontario Laboratories Information System, which processes COVID-19 tests from across the province, ICES published the number of tests conducted within the jurisdiction of each of Ontario’s health units from Jan. 15 to April 30.
According to that report, by April 30, 9,767 people in Niagara had been tested for COVID-19. By that data, Niagara Health had tested just more than 8,000 people, meaning the remainder were tests conducted elsewhere in the region.
However, Hirji said laboratory information system does not pull in every test done in Ontario, meaning even that data is under reporting the number of the tests done.
The report also shows that, based on the data from the lab information system, Niagara has one of the highest per capita rates of COVID-19 testing in Ontario, testing between 2,001 and 2,100 people per 100,000 residents.
That is a rate higher than both Toronto and Hamilton.
Last week, several regional politicians urged Niagara Region endorse a proposal put forward by two senior Niagara-onthe-Lake hydro executives to build a lab to test all 450,000 residents in 50 days, saying there was not enough testing being done in Niagara.
Neither the presenters, who incorrectly claimed they had the support of Niagara Health chief executive officer Dr. Tom Stewart, nor their political allies could identify how Niagara is falling short on COVID-19 testing.
In a statement last week, Stewart and Niagara Health said a plan to randomly test every Niagara resident “has no place” in fighting the pandemic.
While Niagara Health is responsible for the majority of local COVID-19 tests, there are “thousands” of tests being done outside the hospital system