Saskatchewan changing PCR test eligibility, COVID reporting practices

Saskatchewan is changing the way it’s managing COVID-19.

While public health measures such as mandatory masking, self-isolation and proof of vaccination will remain in place for the time being, the provincial government is reducing access to PCR testing to only priority populations and is decreasing the number of times per week it issues COVID updates.

“This approach that we are discussing today establishes a path forward that prepares us to live with COVID-19 in an ongoing basis,” Dr. Saqib Shahab, Saskatchewan’s chief medical health officer, said during a conference call Thursday.

As the COVID virus has evolved into new strains, so too has Saskatchewan’s response, according to Shahab, and he said this move is part of that.

“And now COVID will continue to be monitored and managed similar to other respiratory viruses that are seasonal, like influenza,” said Shahab.

This will allow public health to focus on high-risk settings like long-term care, according to Shahab, and will limit public outbreak reporting to those settings.

Starting Monday, all PCR testing will only be available by appointments made through HealthLine 811. The online appointment booking system for tests will be discontinued, with walk-in and drive-thru testing sites also to be discontinued in the coming weeks.

Saskatchewan Health Authority PCR testing will be reserved for populations deemed to be at an elevated risk for severe outcomes, including:

• Hospitalized patients, those admitted or transferred between acute, long-term care or personal care homes
• High-risk populations as ordered by the medical health officer: residents in long-term care, personal care homes and congregate living facilities; and international or travellers from areas of concern
• Priority symptomatic persons: health-care workers or essential workers who have a negative rapid antigen test but remain symptomatic; those with chronic illness (diabetes, history of cancer, cardiac failure, etc.)
• Symptomatic people living or working in First Nation and Métis communities
• Surgical patients with symptoms or a positive rapid antigen test if scheduled or expecting to receive surgery within the next 90 days
• Pregnant patients who are symptomatic and more than 30 weeks gestation
• Symptomatic immunocompromised individuals including all transplant donors and recipients prior to and post-transplant; all oncology patients prior to, receiving or post chemotherapy
• Newborns born to COVID-19-positive parents, prior to discharge.

Health-care workers and workers deemed essential under the current public health order with negative rapid antigen results who remain symptomatic will be eligible for PCR tests.

Anyone who needs a PCR test for travel, insurance claims including potential Workers’ Compensation Board claims, or in lieu of proof of vaccination will have to buy a test from a private lab service provider.

The government noted the rest of the population can use rapid antigen tests. More than four million have been requested from the federal government for each of February and March.

As well, public health will shift resources to focus on outbreak management in settings where the risk of severe health outcomes is highest, including acute care, long-term and personal care homes, correctional facilities and congregate living settings including shelters and group homes.

“While outbreaks related to public mass gatherings/events, places of worship, workplaces, daycares, and educational settings will no longer be investigated, these venues and organizations will continue to be supported by local public health with transmission mitigation planning and standard surveillance protocols,” the government said in a release.

Starting Monday, epidemiological information will be reported weekly on Thursdays. The provincial COVID dashboard will be discontinued in the coming days.

Shahab said the weekly reports are more useful in terms of monitoring anyway.

“I’ve mostly been using those weekly reports when I speak to the epidemiology. As I said, it’s always important to look at the past seven days, the seven-day average, and so that approach will continue to inform not just the health system and public health but the public also,” said Shahab.

Around April, depending on the trajectory of the virus, Shahab said COVID would go down to community-based surveillance and a monthly report, then brought back into the weekly respiratory surveillance report in the fall when such viruses tend to grow.

Shahab said the response will be shifting into “self-management” for most people as less than one per cent of people who get Omicron will require hospitalized care.

Self-management, to Shahab, includes things like monitoring for symptoms, self-testing, and keeping yourself home if you’re ill.

“I think we’ve learned a lot over the last 23 months now about living with COVID and to prevent transmission and we all understand the preventative measures,” said Shahab.

According to Shahab, it’s everything together that’s indicating the province can head into just living with COVID — from the province’s higher vaccination rates, the higher transmissibility of the Omicron variants, the lower severity of the variant, the wide availability of rapid tests and the use of antivirals and monoclonal antibodies.

Shahab said the province has likely peaked in its daily cases but will still have a week or two of growing hospitalizations before that number peaks as well. Despite that, he said this is still the right time to make this shift.

“The data that we relied on for the bulk of our reporting case numbers is no longer reliable — (like the) number of contacts per case. We no longer have that. It’s not that meaningful in any case,” Shahab explained.

— With files from 980 CJME’s Lisa Schick