Asymptomatic testing for COVID-19 in Saskatchewan unlikely

Random or asymptomatic testing for COVID-19 likely won’t be coming to Saskatchewan anytime soon.

Chief Medical Health Officer Dr. Saqib Shahab joined Gormley on Wednesday to discuss the province’s pandemic response strategy.

He said there are multiple reasons why it isn’t especially helpful to test those without symptoms in most circumstances.

“Just because someone is negative today, doesn’t mean they won’t become positive tomorrow or anytime in the next two weeks,” he explained.

Testing is also not always accurate in detecting asymptomatic carriers of the coronavirus.

“If you have no symptoms but are infectious, the test itself may be 50 per cent or even higher of being negative.”

He still believes testing is an important step in fighting the pandemic, but it isn’t the only necessary strategy.

“Testing is extremely important and contact tracing is important, but they’re not the only pillars of the public health response. The fundamental pillar is physical distancing all the time.”

However, there is one scenario where they would begin testing symptom-free people; an outbreak in a long-term care facility.

“You may screen all staff and all residents to separate who is infectious today and who is non-infectious.”

Testing capacity in the province is up to 1500 a day. You can see the test numbers on the Government of Saskatchewan website.