OTTAWA—The federal government is ready to help provinces massively scale up their COVID-19 testing capacity to fend off a potential second wave of the novel coronavirus, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday.
Testing needs to increase immediately in Ontario and Quebec, where the economies are starting to reopen but the number of new COVID-19 cases remains high, said Trudeau, who first offered provinces a national framework on testing and contact tracing last week.
Trudeau said he’s received positive responses from across Canada so far and planned to further discuss the offer on his weekly call with provincial and territorial premiers Thursday.
“We know, particularly in those areas that are still trying to get the virus under control, it is going to be important to increase testing now,” Trudeau said.
Even in areas with a low number of new cases, Trudeau said governments need to be able to instantly increase their testing capacity in the event of fresh outbreaks.
“Any flare-ups need to be responded to extremely quickly,” he said.
Canada has the capacity to test about 60,000 people each day, but is averaging about only 28,000 daily tests.
In Ontario, the province has fallen far short of its goal of 16,000 tests per day. On Tuesday, the latest day for which figures are available, the province completed only 10,506 tests. In Quebec, only 9,582 tests were completed on Monday, according to the latest figures.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said he is pushing for more tests, and wants to see swabs done on taxi drivers, truckers, long-term care home workers and residents, as well as regular members of the community. The fact that it’s not happening is frustrating, he said.
“We’re going to make sure we ramp it up,” Ford said in a briefing Thursday. “Can I give you an exact date? I can’t. I’m pushing the table as hard as I can.”
Trudeau said he doesn’t want logistics or finances to get in the way of doing the testing or contact tracing needed to keep the pandemic under control.
One of the challenges to increasing the number of tests across Canada is that each jurisdiction has their own strategy, said Health Minister Patty Hajdu during the House of Commons special committee on COVID-19 Thursday.
To date, she said the federal government has been trying to help provinces increase their capacity by making sure they have access to labs, and materials like swabs and reagents.
By Laura Osman
