Experts say Canada needs to develop a robust system to detect COVID-19 activity in the absence of wide-scale PCR testing.
Since the onset of the Omicron variant, provinces and territories have scaled back access to gold-standard PCR testing, citing the lack of capacity to keep up with demand and the need to free up health-care resources.
Many people have since relied on results from rapid antigen tests, but they aren’t as reliable at detecting the Omicron variant or reported and tracked the way PCR tests are. Experts say there needs to be a better way of informing people about COVID-19 activity in their communities.
Dr. Caroline Colijn, a mathematician and epidemiologist at Simon Fraser University, said there are currently “too many infections” in Canada to expand access to PCR tests to everyone to find out the true number of infections.
She said more robust programs could also be used to pick up other kinds of respiratory infections.
“And I suspect those are under development, but until they’re developed, deployed, and results are publicly available, people will have trouble finding out what their risks are in their social group, in their community and in their workplace,” she said.
“So then they’ll have trouble having the information needed to inform their own choices, their own workplace or community policies.”
Colijn said wastewater data is a really important source of information that can be publicly shared without compromising anyone’s private medical data and can help communities understand the prevalence of COVID-19. But like PCR and rapid tests, she said it has its limitations.
She noted there are numerous factors that could change wastewater signals, such as rainfall, temperature and different variants leaving different amounts of sequencing in the water, resulting in less accurate COVID-19 case estimates.
Colijn said she anticipates an integrated system that would incorporate wastewater data, along with PCR and rapid test results, in a way that’s designed to paint a more accurate picture of how much COVID-19 is in a population and inform people about the risk of contracting the virus.
“So we do need to think about how to get representative samples, and how to understand how many infections are out there,” she said.
Dr. Dan Gregson, an infectious disease physician and medical microbiologist at the University of Calgary, said it would be reasonable to expand PCR testing access to certain settings like schools and long-term care homes in the event of an outbreak so they can make a decision on whether to close those institutions to prevent further transmission.
However, he said the average person can rely on wastewater data to assess the risk of contracting COVID-19 in their community since it’s “much more cost-effective” and “tells us similar information” to PCR testing.
Dr. Peter Juni, scientific director of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table, said it’s “likely not sustainable” to expand access to PCR testing to all symptomatic individuals again because of the high cost of the tests.
Juni noted that when PCR testing was available to all residents in Ontario, only somewhere between 30 and 45 per cent of infections were being detected because not everyone with the virus was getting tested. Some may have been asymptomatic, while others may not have had time to get tested., and still others may not have been getting tested early enough.
As for rapid antigen tests available in Canada, he said they have shown “lower test performance” when it comes to detecting the Omicron variant.
What’s needed is a COVID-19 detection system that can use a random sample in a population “to try to understand what’s actually happening and which can be ramped up if needed,” Juni said.
“If we see in wastewater, for instance, that infections start to increase, (then) we actually can really activate the system or extend it a bit, but it will be just a surveillance system that gives us enough situational awareness.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 21, 2022.
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This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Meta and Canadian Press News Fellowship.
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WINNIPEG – Police in Winnipeg say one person has died and three more were injured after a pickup truck smashed into a bus shelter on Portage Avenue during the morning commute.
Police say those injured are in stable condition in hospital.
It began after a Ford F150 truck hit a pedestrian and bus shelter on Portage Avenue near Bedson Street before 8 a.m.
Another vehicle, a power pole and a gas station were also damaged before the truck came to a stop.
The crash forced commuters to be rerouted and knocked out power in the area for more than a thousand Manitoba Hydro customers.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
KAMLOOPS, B.C. – A 35-year-old man has been charged with second-degree murder after his mother’s body was found near her Kamloops, B.C., home a year ago.
Mounties say 57-year-old Jo-Anne Donovan was found dead about a week after she had been reported missing.
RCMP says its serious crime unit launched an investigation after the body was found.
Police say they arrested Brandon Donovan on Friday after the BC Prosecution Service approved the charge.
TORONTO – Strength in the base metal and technology sectors helped Canada’s main stock index gain almost 100 points on Friday, while U.S. stock markets climbed to their best week of the year.
“It’s been almost a complete opposite or retracement of what we saw last week,” said Philip Petursson, chief investment strategist at IG Wealth Management.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 297.01 points at 41,393.78. The S&P 500 index was up 30.26 points at 5,626.02, while the Nasdaq composite was up 114.30 points at 17,683.98.
The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 93.51 points at 23,568.65.
While last week saw a “healthy” pullback on weaker economic data, this week investors appeared to be buying the dip and hoping the central bank “comes to the rescue,” said Petursson.
Next week, the U.S. Federal Reserve is widely expected to cut its key interest rate for the first time in several years after it significantly hiked it to fight inflation.
But the magnitude of that first cut has been the subject of debate, and the market appears split on whether the cut will be a quarter of a percentage point or a larger half-point reduction.
Petursson thinks it’s clear the smaller cut is coming. Economic data recently hasn’t been great, but it hasn’t been that bad either, he said — and inflation may have come down significantly, but it’s not defeated just yet.
“I think they’re going to be very steady,” he said, with one small cut at each of their three decisions scheduled for the rest of 2024, and more into 2025.
“I don’t think there’s a sense of urgency on the part of the Fed that they have to do something immediately.
A larger cut could also send the wrong message to the markets, added Petursson: that the Fed made a mistake in waiting this long to cut, or that it’s seeing concerning signs in the economy.
It would also be “counter to what they’ve signaled,” he said.
More important than the cut — other than the new tone it sets — will be what Fed chair Jerome Powell has to say, according to Petursson.
“That’s going to be more important than the size of the cut itself,” he said.
In Canada, where the central bank has already cut three times, Petursson expects two more before the year is through.
“Here, the labour situation is worse than what we see in the United States,” he said.
The Canadian dollar traded for 73.61 cents US compared with 73.58 cents US on Thursday.
The October crude oil contract was down 32 cents at US$68.65 per barrel and the October natural gas contract was down five cents at US$2.31 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was up US$30.10 at US$2,610.70 an ounce and the December copper contract was up four cents US$4.24 a pound.
— With files from The Associated Press
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
