Albertans who have chills, or who are feeling unwell or tired, are now able to get a test for COVID-19.
On Monday, Dr. Deena Hinshaw,Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, announced expanded testing criteria for COVID-19.
Hinshaw said any Albertans who are suffering from a fever, chills, new cough or worsening of a chronic cough, new or worsening shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, sore throat or painful swallowing, stuffy or runny nose, headaches, muscle or joint aches, feeling unwell in general, new fatigue, severe exhaustion, gastrointestinal symptoms (including nausea, vomiting, diarrhea or unexplained loss in appetite), loss of smell and pink eye now qualify for a COVID-19 test.
“This expanded list is based on new and emerging information on the virus. The AHS self-assessment tool online has been updated to include all of these systems,” Hinshaw said.
Alberta’s top doctor said adding in these new symptoms will allow the province to catch cases early and be able to find cases with more unusual symptoms.
Hinshaw said there is evidence a small number of cases remain asymptomatic throughout the duration of the infection and the province is expanding testing to help catch those cases.
“In order to improve our chances of finding these cases who may not experience symptoms, today we are also expanding the availability of testing to all close contacts of confirmed cases, whether they are feeling symptoms or not,” Hinshaw said.
The information gleaned from asymptomatic testing has limitations, though. Hinshaw said patients may test negative but then go on to develop the illness later. She said testing an asymptomatic patient only captures a snapshot of time, so asymptomatic patients who have been exposed will still have to self-isolate for 14 days.
Testing will also be expanded to include anybody who is newly admitted to a continuing care facility in the province, as well as testing those who live in the facility who are admitted to hospital or when they are discharged from the hospital.
The total number of lives lost to COVID-19 has reached 104 in Alberta.
“Reaching more than 100 deaths is a sombre milestone,” Hinshaw said.
In the last 24 hours, the province has confirmed 70 new cases of COVID-19.
In total, 5,836 Albertans have been diagnosed with COVID-19, with 2,943 of them having now recovered.
Hinshaw reported an additional nine deaths in the province, with four happening in the last 24 hours. The others occurred in the previous weeks or days.
“Sometimes it takes time to confirm a death was related to COVID-19.”
Currently there are 621 cases related to outbreaks in continuing care facilities. There are 936 cases reported at the Cargill meat packing plant, with 810 of the patients now recovered.
Brooks has a total of 998 cases, with 469 at the JBS meat packing plant in the city. This brings the total infections in the city to around seven per cent of the total population of 14,451.
“This is not an outbreak limited to a worksite, but a complex outbreak that needs interventions across all settings,” Hinshaw said.
The top doctor urged Albertans to not blame plant employees for these outbreaks.
“Employees at these plants should not be blamed or shamed for spread of this virus. We are all in this together and our success of controlling spread will be based on how effectively we can help each other to take the measures that are required.”
So far, the province has conducted 164,722 tests, including 3,375 in the past 24 hours.
There has been a new outbreak at the Purolator distribution centre in Calgary, with 30 reported cases. The company is working closely with AHS to put in outbreak precautions and is working with AHS to offer testing to all employees.
Hinshaw said the province's aggressive testing approach has allowed the province to identify cases quickly and coupled with improved contact tracing ability through the AbTraceTogether app, will be the cornerstone of Alberta’s relaunch strategy.
Since the app launched last week, more than 103,660 users have registered. The technical issues with the registration code that was experienced by some users has been resolved.
