Alberta opening coronavirus testing to asymptomatic Calgary workers

May 11 2020, 10:43 pm

The Province of Alberta is, yet again, expanding their COVID-19 testing.

Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw announced at Monday’s coronavirus update that testing would be offered to asymptomatic Calgary zone residents who work outside the home.

The expanded testing is being done to gain more information about asymptomatic transfer.

“We can only test up to 1,000 people per day to ensure we leave room to test those who are sick, but I encourage anyone in the Calgary zone who is interested to participate to go online and register for a test,” Hinshaw said.

“it is important to remember that testing people who aren’t sick just gives a point-in-time picture of whether they have the virus at a particular moment in time. It is possible if someone has had an exposure that they could test negative but go on to get sick later. However, offering testing to this group of people will give us more information about COVID-19 in Calgary at this point in time.”

Hinshaw also urged anyone who does have any coronavirus symptoms to fill out the online self-assessment tool or to call 811 to schedule a test.

People who are feeling sick will have priority over the asymptomatic Calgarians.

Appointments can be made by heading to Alberta Health Service’s online tool.

Calgary has seen 4,278 of Alberta’s 6,300 total confirmed cases, and has 1,011 known active cases as of May 11.

Chandler WalterChandler Walter

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