More community testing for COVID-19 is being encouraged.
Speaking on AM800's The Morning Drive, Windsor Regional Hospital's VP of Critical Care and Director of Infection Control, Karen Riddell says the focus has recently been on swabbing at long-term care and retirement homes but as we move forward with loosened provincial restrictions, we need to shift back to community swabbing.
"To really ensure that we have a good handle on what is going on in our community both currently as well as any impact from the loosening of restrictions," says Riddell. "So we need to keep a close eye on that and ensure we have a continued flattening of the curve in our community."
Riddell says increased testing shouldn't be an issue because there has recently been a much more consistent supply of testing materials.
"With everybody ramping up globally, all using the same supplies, going from zero to 100, it's taken a little while for the manufacturing sector obviously to get caught up with the demand but that looks like things are resolving, we've had much better turnaround times at our labs," she says.
Riddell doesn't believe testing will become mandatory but if anybody has symptoms or is concerned, she encourages them to reach out to Telehealth Ontario, a primary care physician or self-refer to the assessment centre.
"We really need to have a good handle on what's going on in our community," says Riddell. "We've only tested, even with all the testing we've done, about two per cent of our community and we need to get that up much higher so that we know the results are really reflective of what's going on. And we know that we're in this for the long haul, it's going to take a long time for COVID to burn itself out."
If you believe you are symptomatic, Riddell says you should not be going out in public unless you are doing so to seek medical care.