A Vancouver father whose toddler contracted COVID-19 at a Burnaby daycare says B.C. must deploy fast testing now and to shift methods earlier than variants of the virus take over.
Andrew Longhurst is annoyed his son’s case can also be linked to a now-infamous latest trivia night time at pub Port Moody.
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Andrew Longhurst’s 18-month previous son Levi examined constructive for the virus on Feb. 10, amid an outbreak on the SFU Childcare Centre.
His spouse examined constructive a few week later, however as a result of Longhurst stays detrimental he’s been instructed the household should isolate till a minimum of March 7, in case he contracts the virus on the finish of his spouse’s infectious interval.
Thankfully, Levi’s signs seem gentle, Longhurst stated, however he’s nonetheless involved concerning the potential long-term results of the virus.
“The very last thing you wish to see is your youngster take a look at constructive. We don’t know sufficient about this illness, it’s unpredictable, and it’s scary,” Longhurst, a PhD candidate and public well being researcher at SFU, stated.
“It blows my thoughts {that a} bar trivia night time was taking place amidst a situation the place we’ve got extremely infectious variants seeded in the neighborhood already.”
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Fraser Well being stated it couldn’t affirm particulars about any particular companies, however did affirm an occasion involving a trivia night time inside the well being area was linked to 25 circumstances of COVID-19, together with an outbreak at a toddler centre.
It additionally confirmed the SFU outbreak, involving 26 folks, was the primary COVID-19 outbreak at a daycare centre inside Fraser Well being.
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As upset as Longhurst is concerning the hyperlink between the 2 occasions, he’s extra annoyed with the province for what he believes is an unwillingness to replace its technique and head off a brutal, variant-driven third wave.
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“That is the second to deploy fast testing, to have the ability to take a look at your complete child-care neighborhood and to cease additional transmission,” he stated.
“Why are we not utilizing these instruments when there’s a stockpile of someplace within the vary of one million fast assessments sitting in a warehouse?”
Provincial well being officer Dr. Bonnie Henry has resisted deploying fast assessments, describing them as time-consuming to make use of and with spotty accuracy.
B.C.’s long run care business and seniors’ advocate have each been calling for a fast take a look at deployment for months.
They argue the assessments might be applied as an extra screening device, noting an individual who returned a detrimental take a look at would nonetheless need to bear all the opposite common screening measures.
Longhurst stated many different provinces have discovered efficient methods to make use of the assessments.
With COVID-19 variants nonetheless within the early levels, he stated B.C. ought to emulate Nova Soctia, which has applied pop-up fast testing of asymptomatic or presymptomatic folks earlier than they’ve the possibility to move the virus on.
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“We’re not successful this battle proper now by simply doing symptomatic and never deploying fast testing in a few of these greater threat settings,” he stated.
“We’re all the time going to be behind the eight ball… I’m truthfully very fearful about this spring as a result of I fear that the childcare centres throughout the province and colleges and workplaces are going to undergo repeat waves of getting to ship folks dwelling and isolate.”
At Friday’s COVID-19 briefing, deputy provincial well being officer Dr. Reka Gustafson indicated B.C. had no plans to maneuver to asymptomatic testing.
The measures that cease the unfold of the unique COVID-19, corresponding to bodily distancing, hand washing and masks, are the identical methods that may forestall transmission of the variants, she stated.
“Testing with out signs is definitely not a method that has been confirmed to be significantly useful,” she stated, including that testing was out there to anybody who needed it.
“ our methods and our method to testing, we truly don’t have any indication that we’re lacking massive numbers of circumstances and even substantial variety of circumstances.”
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However Longhurst stated sticking with what B.C. is already doing isn’t working.
And he stated whereas his household is lucky sufficient to have the revenue and assist community to be quarantined at dwelling for a month, 1000’s of different British Columbians don’t have that.
“At what level do we are saying, OK, folks aren’t going to have the ability to deal with this anymore,” he stated.
“We have now to suppose what are different locations doing that’s working properly, and why aren’t we taking these classes severely?”
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