A look into the COVID testing site in Saskatoon

Flash back a year’s time and the thought of a mass testing site for a viral disease sweeping across the globe may have sounded more like a plot for an upcoming movie.

Well, it has become the reality, and Saskatchewan isn’t immune to the spread of COVID-19.

“We didn’t expect COVID and so we ended up having to act very quickly to get a COVID testing centre set up,” said Karen Levesque, director of primary health care in Saskatoon.

“(There have) been lots of new learnings as we went, lots of things in development, but we have been doing quality improvement as we go.”

Those changes included flipping sites, and seeing what worked best for our province and the local area of Saskatoon.

“We’ve also added a drive-through, we’ve added a second testing site in the core neighbourhood, we’ve done mobile testing, so we’ve had lots and lots of changes and although there has been some confusion along the way and continuous change, it’s gone really, really well,” Levesque said.

Since Saskatchewan had its first case of COVID on March 12, 2020, Saskatoon has led the way in positive COVID cases with 7,582. The city had 302 active cases as of Sunday.

The Saskatoon testing centres have also been leading the way in terms of testing. Since March 12 of last year, 164,161 tests have been administered alone in the Bridge City.

Levesque explains what keeps her workers safe at those testing sites.

“We have very strict safety measures and protocols to protect our staff, then, of course, to protect individuals who come to get tested,” she said. “All staff across the Saskatchewan Health Authority have to complete a screening before they come to work, every 24 hours.”

The screening can be done on their own, and COVID testing is voluntary for staff. All in all, Levesque said these workers feel safe coming through the doors at work each and every day.

“They have lots of protection, and I can share that our staff have on many occasions said they feel much safer there than they do in the community,” she said. “(It’s) so very important for all of us in the community are protecting ourselves as well as others.”

Precautions such as sanitizing hands, wearing masks into the building and then changing their masks to medical grade, following protocols across the sites including inside break rooms, and wearing visors and gowns have made the process easy on staff, according to Levesque.

When it comes to actual transmission in the workplace, she added that it hasn’t happened in Saskatoon.

“None of our staff have got COVID from the workplace, and that is because of the protective equipment (and) the strict policy and guidelines that we have in place,” she said.

“Any workplace, there are staff that are COVID positive, and so they do have to be off. We are all dealing with the same thing. We hope that we have enough casual staff to fill the slots. We have certainly done OK at the test centre, but this is a real concern for everybody across the province.”

Levesque said she is aware of two cases of COVID among the staff at the testing centre, both of which were contracted outside of the workplace. Those two individuals both took the protective measures once they found out about their positive tests, including self-isolation.

Levesque added she expects her staff to be leaders when it comes to testing. Point-of-care or rapid testing is available now to staff at the site, making it easier to detect positive tests whether it be in the early stages of the disease, or an asymptomatic case.