To date, only five per cent of Alberta’s COVID-19 tests done in the South Zone
By GILLIAN SLADE on March 17, 2020.
gslade@medicinehatnews.com@MHNGillianSlade Alberta Health says only five per cent of COVID-19 tests done in the province have been in the south zone. By Sunday, 8,831 COVID-19 tests had taken place across Alberta. Of those, 442 were in this region, what Alberta Health Services calls the South Zone, which includes Medicine Hat and Lethbridge. “We are not breaking testing numbers down by the municipality. However, I can tell you that, as of today, 442 people have been tested in the South Zone,” said Tom McMillan, assistant director, communications for Alberta Health. Of the 8,831 tests in the whole province, 56 were positive. Most cases are in the Edmonton and Calgary regions. In Canada, there are more than 415 cases of COVID-19 as of Monday afternoon. Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, has stated that not everyone can be tested for COVID-19 and you cannot just go to a public health facility and ask for a test. The only way to determine if you require and qualify for a test is to call Health Link 811 or complete the COVID-19 assessment online (see link below). The volume of calls to Health Link 811 has increased exponentially and even with increased telephone lines and additional staff, there are reports of it being difficult to get through at times. This was one of the reasons for establishing the online assessment tool that became available on Friday evening. Once officials, through Health Link or the assessment tool, determine that you need to be tested for COVID-19, they make arrangements with local health officials and will tell you where to go for the test. In some cases arrangements are made for people to drive up to a health facility where an authorized person comes to the vehicle to collect a sample, Hinshaw has said. This is done by swabbing through the nose to the back of the throat. In some cases arrangements are even made for someone to be tested in their own home. Only if someone is already in hospital for another reason and develops symptoms that could be COVID-19, will a test be done in hospital. Hinshaw announced on Sunday that results of tests can take up to about four days. Anyone who has travelled outside of Canada or has been in contact with someone who has tested positive, is advised to self-isolate for 14 days. The reason for the self-isolation is to limit the spread of the virus. By Monday afternoon a total of 181,127 cases of COVID-19 had been identified around the world. To put those numbers in perspective, 81,032 cases are in China, 27,980 in Italy, 14,991 in Iran, 9,942 in Spain, 8,236 in South Korea, 7,272 in Germany, 6,650 in France, 4,287 in the U.S., 2,200 in Switzerland, 1,551 in the United Kingdom, 1,414 in Netherlands, 1,312 in Norway, 1,103 in Sweden, 1,058 in Belgium and 1,018 in Austria. Other countries are below the 1,000 threshold at this stage, according to data provided online by Johns Hopkins University at some point on Monday. This information is updated constantly online. https://www.albertahealthservices.ca/news/Page15433.aspx https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6 19-18
