Thought of the Day - February 3 - Testing Support

It has been over six months since I talked about the drive-through testing process here in Burnaby ( Thought of the Day - June 2 - Testing Testing Check 1 2 ).

Here is a recent greater Vancouver account from an acquaintance who tested positive last week.

A friend in my bubble let me know she was having symptoms and was going to get tested, so I went for a test that afternoon. They were incredibly informative at the test site, and give you a pamphlet with a phone number to call, directions to sign up for "my eHealth" which you’d then be able to log into to see your results as soon as they were logged, and they give you a number so you can register for a text message result. I did all three. My results took about a day and a half to show up. From there, they call you within the next 12 hours and walk through a couple of numbers I can call anytime with questions, they walk through how I’m feeling and list of symptoms questions, and what exactly they mean by quarantining/how to handle apartment hallways/roommates etc.

I notified my family physician so she knew. I’m sure they also notify as they verified at the time of the test who my doctor was.

After that first phone call, the next day another person calls for a longer ‘interview’ that was about a 30-minute call that goes through in more detail symptoms, what to do, who to call etc.

I’ve been told that the next phone call will be on February 4th. They determined after the second call that that would be sufficient time, barring I didn’t have any symptoms left to be able to leave quarantine. Ok, I just called them and learned at that February 4th date, once I’ve been cleared via a phone call they will send a letter saying I’m allowed to leave quarantine. They don’t require a re-test for a couple of reasons; dead COVID cells apparently would still show up on the results, and my medical records are private.

I find this fairly reassuring as it sounds like:

1. Testing is more immediate (both getting and receiving the results);

2. Counselling, and thus contact tracing follow-up, is now more sophisticated;

3. Recovered is defined as having no symptoms by the end of the quarantine period - rather than just an elapsed time after a positive test (not sure what happens if you start long-hauling).

I guess it is still too bad that we are still the only province without a contact tracing app ( Thought of the Day - November 30 - BC's Contact Tracing App ). This means, unless your exposure is through a public venue, it relies on you knowing the positive person with whom you have been in contact to start the whole process. That said, after a delayed bug-ridden launch, I am not sure that other provinces have done much to promote the app. Less than 100 positive people have entered their code to the app in Atlantic Canada (less than 10% of those diagnosed). Ontario is reporting less than 10%. There has really been no information from Alberta concerning their app since saying last year that they will not migrate from their provincial app to the Canada standard. So I guess both apps are dead in the water.

In the meantime don't forget the symptoms list.

Cheers

Cliff