Most Covid-19 tests are now coming back within three days regardless of what region of the NWT they were conducted in, according to chief public health officer Dr. Kami Kandola.
"Since we expanded rapid, in-territory testing, our return times have dropped significantly from 6.2 days on-average with most tests coming back in roughly three days or less, regardless of region," she said. "This means kids are getting back to school, and parents back to work, sooner. It’s one way our investments are leading to fewer disruptions for residents, while keeping our territory safe.
She said the majority of our tests are now being analyzed in-territory.
"This is increasing our resilience, and reducing our reliance on others to deliver the service residents want and deserve."
Kandola told reporters Wednesday her department spent September focusing on three areas where public health responses to the Covid-19 pandemic are proving to be successful: preparing to monitor wastewater for evidence of Covid-19, the expansion of rapid-testing across the territory and the hiring of additional staff in preparation for the second wave.
She said the auto-samplers for the wastewater surveillance program that will take place in NWT centres including Yellowknife and Hay River have been ordered and are close to being delivered.
"When they arrive, we will set them up and begin an ambitious population COVID surveillance program which will continuously test for Covid-19 in about 50 per cent of NWT’s population without ever needing to do a single swab," Kandola stated.
Hiring additional staff
The department has also increased staff "steadily," Kandola said to improve all in-territory testing and to improve contract tracing abilities.
"We are investing in staff to lead efforts at the community level, and are working with the federal government to use candidates from their pool of contact tracers," she said.
Kandola also addressed anxiety being felt in small communities outside of Yellowknife where fears about the spread of the virus have been more acute since March.
"As cases accelerate in Canada, that is natural," she said. "But I want to assure communities that our measures are working. And everyone should know so long as people are sticking to the basics, they will be safe."
ID Now rapid testing approved
Kandola said that the approval of ID Now by Health Canada on Sept. 30 is currently being investigated by her department.
On Tuesday, the federal government signed an agreement with Abbott Rapid Diagnostics ULC to purchase up to 7.9 million ID NOW rapid point-of-care tests. On Wednesday, Health Canada authorized their use.
NNSL file photo
"We are currently investigating new technologies like ID Now to allow same-day tests in non-specialized settings at defined time periods for travellers," she said.
"We are reviewing the evidence on the relationship between testing periods, and risk of transmission to prepare to implement a new strategy when these technologies are available to us in Canada.
"And once we do, we will be able to consider additional careful steps forward to reduce restrictions, review our public health orders, and consider different approaches to self-isolation."
Dennis Marchiori replaces Conrad Baetz
The department announced that Dennis Marchiori is replacing Conrad Baetz as Covid enforcement lead.
Marchiori, a former public safety director with the City of Yellowknife, worked with Baetz and Kandola on the NWT Compliance and Enforcement Taskforce when it was launched in April.
At the time, Baetz, a senior bureaucrat with the Department of Lands was named to head the taskforce. Baetz retired after 35 years of public service with the GNWT as of Sept. 18.
Marchiori said the aims of the task force are to improve efficiency with the planned Covid Secretariat and help residents when they are travelling.
"What we are actually trying to do on enforcement is integrate more with our self isolation centres, as well as our border and airport checkpoints to make sure that primarily residents are well served and they know the information that we provide as well as what they have to do to comply with the chief public health officer orders," he said. "We also want to make sure that as orders may change in the future, that we are also well positioned to be able to handle that and provided to all of our residents whether they've travelled for their own reasons or may have travelled for medical travel. We want to make sure that our residents are well taken care of when they come back for border checkpoints."
The department reported on Wednesday evening that since Sept. 16, there have been a handful of infractions.
"The four new charges laid since Sept. 16 were all for not following self-isolation protocols and were all issued in the North Slave," stated Mike Westwick, spokesperson for the Office of the Chief Public Health Officer.