BONNYVILLE – Since early spring, Chambers of Commerce across Alberta have been providing businesses that signed up for a rapid testing program with enough kits to test every asymptomatic employee up to twice per week.
The program is unofficially on pause following a lack of rapid tests being provided to Alberta’s Chambers of Commerce by Alberta Health.
The program has been extremely beneficial for local business to prevent workplace outbreaks and give peace of mind to business owners and their employees, says Serina Parsons, the executive director for the Bonnyville and District Chamber of Commerce.
However, two weeks ago, around the time Alberta students headed back to school following the winter break, pre-ordered COVID-19 rapid testing kits stopped arriving at Bonnyville’s Chamber of Commerce.
“(Alberta Health) doesn't send us a standard number of tests. We request the tests as we need them based on the amount people as signed up for the program,” Parsons explains. “We received our last shipment quite a while ago."
Now, some of the 50-plus businesses who have registered for the program are in need of their next allotment of rapid kits – but they are discovering there are none available through the Chamber.
“We certainly ordered these ones early as well, but we ordered them just as AHS (Alberta Health Services) was making the transition from doing PCR testing more frequently, to limiting who is eligible for PCR testing,” says Parsons.
Since the beginning of January, Alberta schools have also been receiving rapid test kits from the province to detect the virus in students and staff.
“Our direct correspondence with (Alberta Health), essentially all they're saying is the timing for eligible but non-prioritized settings to receive tests is currently unknown and may result in long wait times,” Parsons says, referring to information received from the provincial health organization.
According to a statement released by the province on Jan. 24, the changes to the program are “Due to the global shortage of rapid testing kits.” As a result, “Alberta will be prioritizing health care and settings that work with vulnerable populations."
The list of prioritized settings outlined by the province include AHS facilities, long-term care, designated supportive living and hospice settings, community services that work with vulnerable populations, primary care and child care.
“If supply allows and provided requests from these priority settings have been met,” the four other eligible groups will then be provided with rapid tests, according to the Government of Alberta’s website.
The four groups included critical employers, Chambers of Commerce, other medical and pharmacy settings, and post-secondary institutions.
Work place settings that fall under critical employers include airports, construction and manufacturing, essential municipal services, food processing, forestry camps, oil and gas, transportation, and utilities.
“These changes to the workplace Rapid Screening Program do not affect the distribution of rapid testing kits to pharmacies or to K to 12 schools,” states the provincial website.
Frustrations
Parsons says there is some frustration among business owners who no longer have access to the rapid kits that they had signed up for.
Since the program was first rolled out by the province, Chambers of Commerce have been acting as the distribution center for the rapid tests and have been responsible for filling out contracts with participating businesses and reporting anonymous test result data back to the province.
“So, there's nothing we can do without receiving them from Alberta Health,” says Parsons. “I completely understand the backlog and prioritizing the rapid tests and where they are going. However, my frustration from a Chamber perspective, who has been a part of this program for a year, is because we have commitments and contracts with these businesses.”
Parsons says while she understands the province is not able to fulfill their end of the commitment at this time, the move to the reliance on rapid tests is slightly concerning from the Chamber perspective.
Only Albertans who fall under the categories of people at risk of severe illness or work in high-risk settings and have symptoms are currently eligible for a PCR test. This includes children under two years of age with symptoms, those pregnant with symptoms, and people with symptoms who live or work in remote First Nations, Inuit, and Métis communities, among others.
“To ensure PCR testing is available to those who need it most, only people at high risk of severe outcomes or work in high-risk settings need to book a follow up PCR test if they get a positive result on a rapid antigen test,” according to the province.
The biggest problem Parsons sees is a lack of planning prior to moving to a greater reliance on rapid testing.
“They have limited their PCR testing and access to PCR testing and are now relying heavily on rapid tests. However, if we can't get rapid tests to businesses and schools, yet they're asking for more of a reliance on them... the supply and the need didn't meet the deadline of when they changed their policy.”
She notes that all the rapid tests are coming out of the same warehouse. “Rapid tests for schools, rapid tests that are being sent to AHS facilities to be distributed to the public, as well as the business program, which is the one we are a part of.”
And while businesses taking part in the rapid screening program are high on the list of priorities, Parsons says they are not at the top. So there remain several unknowns as to when the program will see a return to normal distribution of antigen screening kits.
Service providers to be affected the most
The majority of the businesses taking part in the COVID screening program are doing it as a preventative measure to stop the spread of the virus – but not all.
Some businesses taking part in the program provide contract services to other companies that require service providers to test negative before entering a worksite.
“Now we are unable to provide those rapid tests that they were using to ensure they could enter these facilities. So that may affect some of their operations,” Parsons explains. “And if we're not getting (rapid tests), there's not many places that are.”
Parsons says that businesses offering private rapid testing will likely see a large influx of people requiring them because of the growing difficulty of procuring tests elsewhere.
“I am just hoping that with supply chain challenges and everything else, that the supply will soon meet the demand – but that does not seem to be the case at this time,” says Parsons.
