Ontario’s top doctor to make announcement amidst soaring demand for COVID-19 tests

We are awaiting an update this morning from Ontario’s top doctor about its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Chief medical officer of health Dr. Kieran Moore is expected to speak about the province’s case management, contact tracing, and updated testing guidance.

The announcement comes one day after Ontario reported 9,418 new COVID-19 cases amidst a recent surge in daily infections that has prompted a swift demand in testing. The province completed 72,639 tests on Christmas Eve — the highest tally in almost a year since January 16.

Ontario recorded more than 10,000 cases on Saturday, setting a record. The 10,412 diagnoses surpass the previous record of 9,826, which was set on Sunday.

Moore is scheduled to speak at 1:30 p.m. after cancelling his COVID-19 briefing initially slated for Thursday. One week ago, Moore hinted that Ontario was preparing to change its preemptive approach to testing and contact tracing as the Omicron variant strains resources, with residents being warned they could face long waits for tests.

The province has hovered around 60,000 to 65,000 tests daily and is capped out at 70,000 with minimal space for more. From December 20 to December 24, Ontario averaged 57,900 daily tests as the percentage of positive infections surged in the 18-24 age group. This has forced anxiety-ridden Ontarians to seek alternatives.

Before Christmas, hundreds of people lined up at Union Station to get free rapid COVID-19 tests — the last day Metrolinx was handing them out at the transit hub.

“We waited for two hours and were told once we got close that they ran out of [the] testing kits,” one woman told CityNews. “It’s hard to fathom. Almost everyone I know has been scrambling to get tested before the holidays. It’s a mess if I am being honest.”

Earlier this month, the Ford government announced a holiday plan to distribute two million free rapid tests to slow the spread of the Omicron COVID-19 variant.

Last week, Michelle Hoad, CEO of the Medical Laboratory Professionals’ Association of Ontario, said when COVID-19 hit, 70 per cent of the province’s labs were short-staffed, and many workers have since retired early or left the profession due to the pressures of the pandemic.

Hoad said the recent surge in COVID-19 tests has laboratory professionals working more overtime and reporting burnout.

She said 95 per cent of labs in Ontario are currently “not staffed the way they need to be to deal with the demand,” and lab workers are struggling with mental health issues after months of long hours.

“We are also starting to notice many of our lab professionals that are reaching sort of the end of their rope. They have been at this for 20 plus months,” Hoad told the Canadian Press.

Some public health units, including Ottawa, have asked residents who have symptoms but can’t access a timely test to assume they are infected and isolate. Last week, the Middlesex-London Health Unit advised residents who develop respiratory symptoms to consider their illness as COVID-19, even without a positive test result.

In late August, the Medical Laboratory Professionals’ Association of Ontario called on the provincial government to invest $6.2 million over four years to address a severe shortage of medical laboratory technologists in Ontario laboratories.