ALBERTA – New rapid testing is being developed in Alberta that will help the province increase its ability to detect positive cases of COVID-19.
Alberta Health Services (AHS) is expecting to take delivery in the coming days of new COVID-19 rapid testing kits, said Premier Jason Kenney Wednesday (April 1).
The kits will significantly expand the province's capacity to test for COVID-19 by thousands of tests per day.
“The hard truth is things will get worse before they get better,” Kenney said. “Alberta’s pandemic response is strong.”
He added that Alberta has led Canada and the developed world in terms of per capita testing.
“The more we test, the better informed we’ll be about where the numbers are headed and the better we can plan for the health-care response,” Kenney said.
Based on the trajectory of new cases in the province and the number of patients currently in the hospital, he said Alberta Health Services is confident it has the personnel and resources to cope with the anticipated peak of the pandemic.
Kenney said AHS modelling for the week to come will be made available in the near future.
“Alberta is rising to the challenge of this pandemic,” Kenney said.
The province's Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw reported 117 new cases of the virus Wednesday, bringing the total number of diagnosed cases in Alberta to 871. Of those who have tested positive for COVID-19, 94 are suspected to be a result of community transmission.
“I know this large jump in cases might seem alarming,” Hinshaw said. “It is the result … of our provincial lab completing a backlog of tests.”
A total of 11 people have died and 142 people have fully recovered from COVID-19.
The Canmore region has reported eight cases of COVID-19 and one case has been reported in the Banff region.
Labs have returned to full working capacity and have completed 4,500 tests in the last 24 hours. She noted that of these tests only two per cent of cases have been confirmed as COVID-19 positive.
Hinshaw said she is concerned with the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in the province, adding that these numbers only reflect people who have been tested.
However, the overall percentage of cases that are confirmed to be positive has remained relatively constant regardless of the number of tests that have taken place.
“Albertan’s should be concerned,” Hinshaw said. “That’s not because of the number specifically today, it’s because we are seeing that two per cent positive rate over the last several days.”
Hinshaw said she is working with the surveillance and epidemiology team to explore the last several days of data with the goal of sharing the results with Albertans to better understand response needed and those at risk.
Hinshaw noted that the new guidelines for testing will remain in place, regardless of increased capacity at the lab.
The province has completed more than 50,000 tests as of Wednesday, Hinshaw said. The first positive case of COVID-19 was confirmed in early March.
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