Waterloo region has increased testing for COVID-19
What you need to know about COVID-19 in Waterloo region on May 6
COVID-19 testing has been ramped up in Waterloo region in recent weeks, and there's a plan to test every person living in long-term care or retirement homes.
On Tuesday, Premier Doug Ford said some public health units aren't doing enough testing for the novel coronavirus.
Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang, the region's acting medical officer of health, said public health does not do the actual testing — long-term care homes or hospitals do it.
"He obviously wants to see testing results go up. I think what is important to understand is that we are trying very hard to work with our partners who actually do the testing to make sure that those rates continue to climb," Wang said Wednesday, adding she wants to see testing rates improved even more.
Wang said in early April, the region didn't have access to enough swabs.
Now that the region has enough, testing partners are increasing testing. That increased testing will include every resident in the 56 long-term care and retirement homes in the region over the next few weeks.
But, Wang said there have also been issues with increasing the number of tests sent to labs in Hamilton, London and Toronto.
She said sometimes one lab becomes overwhelmed with tests, so swabs from the region are redirected to a different lab.
"What we understand is that with all of the swabs that we're submitting now, because we're submitting a lot, this is filling up the lab capacity that has been created and possibly at times testing it," Wang said.
Currently, test results for people living and working in long-term care and retirement homes take between 24 to 48 hours to come back, but other people may not get results for five to seven days.
4 new deaths
Four more people in Waterloo region have died from COVID-19, all of whom lived in long-term care homes in Kitchener.
Two of the deaths were people who lived at Forest Heights Revera, one was at Trinity Village and one was at Victoria Place.
The number of cases reported on Wednesday morning rose to 871, up 11 from Tuesday.
The Region of Waterloo Public Health's numbers also showed 395 people have recovered from the novel coronavirus, up from 377 reported on Tuesday.
Also reported on Wednesday:
- There have been 7,563 tests done in the region.
- 40 people are in hospital. This does not include people moved from Forest Heights long-term care home into area hospitals.
- 264 of people presumed or confirmed positive are health-care workers, making up 30 per cent of cases.
- There are active outbreaks in 14 long-term care, group and retirement homes.
- 22 per cent of people have contracted the virus through community spread.
Public health officials say when a person is listed as getting the virus through community spread, it means it's unclear how they got the virus, but they know the person didn't contract COVID-19 though travel, a long-term care or retirement home outbreak or close contact.
As well, not everyone with symptoms is being tested for the virus. There are priority groups including health-care workers, frontline workers, their families and people living in long-term care, group and retirement homes.
The numbers are accurate as of 7 p.m. on Tuesday.
- COVID-19 | Cancellations, closures and changes in Waterloo region
- COVID-19 | Coverage from CBC Kitchener-Waterloo
Long-term home outbreaks
There are 14 active outbreaks at long-term care and retirement homes in Waterloo region. An outbreak is declared when just one person living at a home or working there tests positive for COVID-19.
There is also one active outbreak at St. Mary's General Hospital in the fifth floor medicine unit. All other outbreaks at hospitals have been declared over.
An outbreak at Stirling Heights in Cambridge has been declared over as of Tuesday.
See the full list of outbreaks.
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