COVID-19 self-testing: this is the gift that the Legault government should offer families for Christmas, believe several experts consulted by The duty. Quebec is trying to distribute it soon, like the other Canadian provinces, which have also called for more rapid tests from the federal government.
The holiday break is just around the corner. Just like the family gatherings that accompany it. But children aged 5 to 11 will only have received one dose of the vaccine by then, while toddlers are not yet eligible. All this while the health networks are at the end of their rope across the country.
The provinces therefore had the same idea. “All provinces are asking for more rapid tests,” confirms a federal source at To have to.
Provincial governments communicate their demands related to the management of the pandemic in their territory to the Public Health Agency of Canada on a monthly basis. They have revised their rapid test orders upward in recent weeks, according to information obtained by The duty. That of Quebec has not yet been quantified.
“Discussions are underway with Quebec regarding the final estimate of their needs for November and December,” reported a spokesperson for the federal public health agency, by email.
The office of the Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, has meanwhile confirmed its desire to simplify screening in Quebec soon.
“It is entirely with the intention of Minister Dubé to bring more autonomy in the way [faire du dépistage chez] Quebeckers, ”said his press officer by email. “We also understand the parents who are very anxious to have a more independent formula for screening [auprès] children. We hope to receive equipment from the federal government within the next few weeks that will gradually make this vision a reality. “
The federal government has distributed nearly 63 million rapid tests to provinces to date. Of this number, 9.2 million were shipped to Quebec, of which 4.5 million remain in reserve. The remaining 4.7 million were sent to various service points, but only 327,000 rapid tests had been used as of Nov. 12, according to data from Ottawa.
The federal government also has 3.5 million rapid tests in its strategic reserve available to the provinces.
Tests for the little ones
The DD Caroline Quach-Thanh, microbiologist-infectious disease specialist at the Center hospitalier universitaire (CHU) Sainte-Justine, believes that the Quebec government should provide free, before the holidays, rapid screening tests to families with children under 5 years old (necessarily not vaccinated) or children aged 5 to 11 (partially vaccinated or not vaccinated).
“They are the most at risk of being infected, without necessarily knowing it,” she said. I think it’s a good idea to be able to test them out before going to large family gatherings. The pediatrician strongly doubts that the distance will be respected if many guests gather.
Associate professor at the School of Public Health of the University of Montreal Roxane Borgès Da Silva also pleads for greater access to rapid screening tests, one more tool “to prevent the circulation of the virus during the Holidays”.
“We could improve our risk management by empowering the population and allowing them to self-test with rapid tests,” she thinks.
Cases could pass between the cracks of the net, recognizes for its part the DD Cécile Tremblay, microbiologist-infectious disease specialist at the CHUM. “Antigenic tests are not perfectly sensitive, far from it. However, they will detect a sufficient viral load, and these are the people who are most likely to transmit the disease, ”she notes.
David Juncker, director of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at McGill University, in turn points out that antigen tests are “extraordinarily sensitive” if the individual is “contagious” – the cases that should be found before reunite as a family in a month.
“To infect someone you need a big dose of the virus,” says Juncker. If you go with your family, see your grandparents, who are typically much more at risk, the day you go to visit them is the time to get tested. “
In the current context, the DD Tremblay believes that Quebec should make these tests accessible to the population.
Since the start of the pandemic, the government has limited their use to prevent them from being “misused”, she recalls. “That said, I think we were a little too strict, then it’s time to use it as another tool to help us manage the pandemic,” she said.
Ontario announced a week ago that it would distribute 11 million rapid antigenic tests to public schools before the Christmas holidays. Each student who wishes will have five screening tests, to be administered twice a week from December 23 to return from leave.
In Quebec, the Quebec Association of Owner Pharmacists thinks that its members could manage the distribution of self-tests. “We are able to repeat tests in a file to ensure that people do not abuse or do not resell it on Amazon,” assures its president, Benoit Morin.
Pharmacists could also teach people how to use these tests, he suggests. “We have discussions [avec le gouvernement] on the role that we could play in that, ”reports Mr. Morin, specifying that these are exploratory.
Self-testing tests are already sold in pharmacies and some outlets in Ontario, for asymptomatic people. In the event of a positive result, they must isolate themselves, and be tested in a screening clinic within 48 hours to confirm the diagnosis.
These self-tests are also sold in pharmacies in France and the United Kingdom. On the US side, rapid tests will be available in pharmacies starting next month.