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The Department of Health has asked the Saskatchewan Health Authority to increase its screening capacity to 4,000 until young people return to school on September 1, but SHA says “this is not necessarily due to the start of schools.”
Premier Scott Moe said on July 23 Saskatchewan had a testing capacity of between about 1,800 and 2,000. On Aug. 1, 2,104 tests were performed in the province — the highest daily testing number to date.
On August 4, the provincial government published its Safe Schools Plan, which leaves decisions on precautions such as the use of a mask and temperature tests to individual school divisions in the first phase of reopening.
The plan does not include any express data on how the tactile search will happen when a case is known at a school, or how the tests will be conducted and under what circumstances.
Last week, the Saskatchewan Medical Association criticized her for not being “more direct” about the use of the mask for scholars in the first phase of the reopening.
On Monday, the Saskatchewan Health Authority provided some key points on its testing technique. He said there were no plans lately for widespread testing or awareness.”
“At the moment, we plan to check students only if it is mandatory in schools, not to create mass verification sites,” SHA’s response said.
With regard to tactile research, the Department of Health has already had an established process.
I think we can be at the forefront and bring the verification kit and configuration to schools. – Dr. Anne Huang, former Sask. Assistant Health Physician
“If a student tests COVID-19, other academics will be asked to self-control, isolate themselves, and test at the first sign of mild symptoms,” he said in an email reaction to the questions.
“Schools will paint with younger children’s families/parents to tell other classmates about possible contacts if there is a positive case.”
Increases daily capacity
At the request of the Ministry of Health, SHA is expanding its testing capacity to 3,000 through mid-August and to 4000 until 1 September.
He said young people who have symptoms that can be simply COVID-19 will want to get tested and isolated at home until they get the results.
SHA said last week that it would hire 90 full-time, 40-five, and forty-five part-time workers to cope with delays of up to five days in referrals and testing through its 811 HealthLine.
Parents will need to isolate themselves if their child is at home, unless they expand symptoms.
Proactive tests would reduce spread: former MHO MP
Dr. Anne Huang, a former health physician assistant at Saskatchewan and Health Canada, said more proactive tests in schools would identify previous instances and decrease transmission.
“I think we can be at the forefront and bring the verification kit and configuration to schools with local nurses who can perform on-site checks,” Huang said.
“If we did this in well-chosen locations, it will actually provide us with proactive follow-up that indicates whether you are receiving more instances that would not have been detected in a different way if we had waited for others to get ahead and get sick.”
He said it would also decrease reliance on 811 HealthLine, which has been affected by the developing call for testing.
Huang said there is also a reporting formula used in schools to report cases of flu-like symptoms that can only be used for COVID-19 detection.
Although he said that not all schools are concerned about this, those who worry check students with flu-like symptoms to see if they have the flu or any other bloodless viruses.
Existing influenza surveillance can simply be a ‘great opportunity’
“I think it would be a wonderful opportunity to take advantage of the existing influenza sentinel surveillance system, for a COVID-19 surveillance system, which will begin in the fall as soon as classes begin and that would give us an indication of increased prospective activity.” she says.
Hospital doctors should also investigate and report cases of influenza in patients of all ages, he said.
A total 506 confirmed cases of influenza were detected among preschool children aged five and under between Sept. 1, 2019, and March 21, 2020.
Five additional 49 were shown among elderly academics aged five to 19 years, while 928 were detected among elderly active adults aged 20 to 64. There were five64 cases in others over the age of five or older.