Tested negative for COVID-19? Still not party time
Test just a snapshot in time, not a free pass for social gatherings, experts caution
Before heading to a small backyard family gathering a couple of weeks ago, Alex Pollard made a very 2020 stop: the COVID-19 assessment centre.
The 23-year-old Mississauga choreographer wanted some extra peace of mind before seeing some older family members, even though he was still careful.
“I went just to be safe,” he said, “to do my part before getting together with anyone.”
This kind of proactive testing before an event, trip, or even a date, is something many are choosing this summer, without symptoms or exposure. But experts caution, while it’s great people are getting tested, a negative result doesn’t mean you can party like it’s 2019.
It’s something Andrew Kennedy, patient care manager of Sunnybrook hospital’s assessment centre, has been seeing a lot of since Ontario opened up testing guidelines in late May.
The province has been consistently processing more than 25,000 tests daily, sometimes more than 30,000. Kennedy said they are seeing “four to five times” the volume they were seeing in April at Sunnybrook, where you don’t need an appointment. This sometimes means there’s a line, but it moves pretty quickly, he added. William Osle r Health System’s Brampton and Etobicoke assessment centres have also been busy, said spokesperson Donna Harris in an email. They conducted over 38,000 tests in July, compared to just over 10,000 in April, and in mid-June moved the Peel Memorial site to South Fletcher’s Sportsplex in Brampton, to accommodate more people.
The official guidelines still say that anyone who has even one symptom, is worried they’ve been exposed, or is at risk through their employment, can get a test, according to Health Ministry spokesperson David Jensen.
But Kennedy said they’re “not turning anyone away, anyone who wants to get tested gets tested.” Before the guidelines were opened up, people were coming who had symptoms or exposure, but since then “we’re seeing more people looking for proactive, clearance to be able to do something.”
That could be a family gathering, or even a wedding where the bride and groom have asked everyone to get tested before coming.
He believes people got this idea around the time the province announced visitors to long-term-care homes could come if they tested negative. At the assessment centre, they counsel them that “a test is just a snapshot in time” and doesn’t mean you’re 100-per-cent COVID free.
“It’s not a free pass to go do whatever you want.”
The issue, said Colin Furness, assistant professor at the Faculty of Information and Dalla Lana School of Public Health, is that you could get a negative result, either because the virus was just not present at the back of your nose during the swab, or you’re still incubating it. One recent Toronto study found the nasal swabs picked up about 89 per cent of infections.
“I don’t want to say to people ‘don’t get tested,’ you want people to get tested, but when they use it as a badge of, ‘I must be fine, I got tested,’ that’s a problem,” Furness said.
It’s not the same as getting an HIV test, for example, “because (with COVID-19) you can be fine one day and not the next.”
It does depend on the circumstances, and there is a big difference between testing to be extra careful, and using it as an excuse to go to a huge indoor party without social distancing. But even when changing households, for example, a better strategy would be to isolate for14 days. Even seven would be better than nothing, Furness said.
It’s “commendable,” said Shannon Majowicz, an associate professor with the University of Waterloo’s School of Public Health and Health Systems, that people are thinking about “how to live and work and play in the safest way possible.”
But she recommends they follow public health guidelines, and not seek out extra testing without symptoms or possible exposure. A negative result is “not permission to ignore” masks and physical distancing.
On the one hand, it’s “wonderful that we have such capacity for diagnostic testing,” said Isaac Bogoch, infectious disease specialist at the University of Toronto and University Health Network. “Ontario has come a long way” in “boosting capacity” after an initial backlog restricted testing at the beginning of the pandemic.
“That’s a win, and the fact that people can just waltz in to a diagnostic testing centre and get a test done is tremendous. The fewer barriers to diagnostic testing the better.”
But at an individual level, “the test is only as good as people’s behaviour in the proceeding few days before the test,” and a negative result might provide a “false sense of security.”
All of this “prophylactic testing” does provide the province with more data to get a sense of how much COVID is lurking in the population, added Furness.
But it would be better if it was being done more strategically, as deliberate randomized testing for high-risk groups. For example, testing waiters and bartenders to get a picture of transmission in restaurants and bars as most of Ontario moves into Phase 3.
Pollard, for one, plans to get tested proactively every couple of weeks as he opens up his City Centre Dance studio, even though he’ll still be wearing a mask and taking other safety precautions.
After a 45-minute wait at the Credit Valley Hospital drivethru assessment centre, the whole process was very smooth and he got his negative results back online just 24 hours later. He wants to be as responsible as possible, given he lives with his older parents, and also downloaded the COVID app.
“Regular testing should be a thing. I feel it makes sense as things are going to be opening up and we’re going to be back out. I just feel like you may as well,” he said.
Charles Wilson, who got a test before heading to a socially distanced Sudbury wedding over the Civic Holiday long-weekend, agrees.
He chronicled his testing on social media to “demystify the process” and show others that it’s no big deal. “If you’ve had water squirted up your nose, you’ve been in more pain than getting a COVID test,” he said.
Wilson had the test to put the bride and groom and their mostly local guests at ease, although he still wore a mask and the whole event was socially distanced. The 35-year-old also plans to get regular tests every couple of weeks as he heads back to work at Durham College. But he understands what it doesn’t say.
“What that test tells me is, as of 9:03 a.m., the SARS-CoV-2 virus is not in my respiratory system. It doesn’t mean it’s not going to be there at 9:04 a.m.,” he said. “It’s not an insurance policy. It’s not a parachute. It’s not a seatbelt.”