Asymptomatic COVID-19 Testing is available for school board staff at pharmacies in Toronto

BY PAUL JUNOR

Now that schools have reopened across Ontario, Ontario has expanded asymptomatic testing to deal with the appearance of variants, which is a major cause of concern in a news release on Monday, February 15^th, 2021.

The Ministry of Education announced that it will ensure that there will be close to 50,000 tests available per week across Ontario. It revealed that asymptomatic testing has already been done in many regions across Ontario and is currently ongoing.

When the asymptomatic testing was done in Ottawa on January 30^th and 31^st, it revealed that 250 individuals tested positive for COVID-19, of which two were students. This is a very low positivity rate.

The Ministry of Education states, “In order to help students and staff safe, as per Operational Guidance, students and staff should not attend school if they present symptoms of COVID-19 and should stay at home, self-isolate, and get tested through Ontario Health and existing Public Health Unit capacity to test for asymptomatic purposes. There is an online testing regime that is local in all regions of the province to provide asymptomatic testing.”

The Ontario government released a document titled, “Ontario takes Immediate Action to Stop the Spread of COVID-19 Variants” (https:// news.Ontario.ca/ release) on January 29^th,2021, which outlines a six-point plan to tackle the screening of variants to include:

• Mandatory testing of travellers
• Enhanced screening and sequencing
• Maintain public health measures
• Strengthening case and contact management
• Enhancing protections for vulnerable
• Leveraging data

The news release from the Ontario government notes, “The Ministry has also driven partnership between local public health units, school boards, and local health delivery partners. In Toronto, for example, the Ministry supported the relationship between MFG, WCH, SickKids, and Humber, and will continue to support these kinds of local partnerships and solutions to maximizing the reach and accessibility of testing of students and staff.”

The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) released a letter on Friday, February 12^th , 2021, which revealed information about voluntary asymptomatic COVID-19 tests that will be available at Toronto pharmacies for its employees. This is in line with the targeted testing that the province has launched across Ontario. This testing at specified pharmacies has to be done in the employees’ free time, and they must not show any COVID-19 symptoms. The employee will have to give their workplace name.

For any TDSB staff that decides to be tested asymptomatically, it is important that they follow all the public health protocols. It will take about 48 hours to get the result and it can be obtained at the Test Results Website, by phone or a different website that the testing location indicates. It is important that during the interim, when one is waiting for the result, that self-monitoring be conducted for the appearance of any possible COVID-19 symptoms. In addition, self-isolation should occur.

CTV News reported on Monday, February 22^nd, 2021 that out of 3,702 tests, which were done in over 400 schools in hotspots, only 32 cases were detected. In Toronto, there were 11 positive tests out of 917 people tested between February 11^th and 13^th in 40 schools. There is hope that approximately 5% of schools will conduct asymptomatic testing. Current data revealed that 278 schools have at least one active case and 10 had to be shut down.

This expansion of the asymptomatic testing in Phase 2 of the province’s enhancement and screening is intended to allay fears of the public. The emergence of new variants in U.K, South Africa and Brazil with confirmation of 51 cases of the U.K variant in Ontario is serious.