Long waits for COVID-19 testing and information frustrating, frightening, Sask. residents say

Scott Woods-Fehr was in line at the COVID-19 testing facility in Saskatoon about an hour and a half before it opened on Wednesday, hoping to beat the rush.

When he got there, he and his son drove the length of the lineup and counted — he was the 113th car. 

They're among many Saskatchewan residents who have reported long wait times at testing centres and while on hold with HealthLine 811 for more information on COVID-19 protocols.

Woods-Fehr's son, Jonah, was getting ready for school when he noticed a cough and a sore throat. Out of caution, Woods-Fehr held his son from school and called HealthLine 811.

He was the 226th caller at about 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday. When he heard back at about 2 p.m., he was told his son should isolate at home, but needed to get a PCR test at a testing centre.

He was told to expect a long wait and warned that people often lined up a couple of hours before the site opens at noon.

"I thought, better to spend two hours knowing I won't be moving than being at the back of the line and not getting in," Woods-Fehr told CBC News while waiting in the lineup around noon. 

He tried to book an appointment for a test, but the earliest appointment he could make was Sunday. Jonah was booked to get his second dose of a COVID-19 vaccine on Saturday.

By about 1:40 p.m. on Wednesday, the Saskatoon facility was booking tests for the afternoon of Jan. 17. The Regina site was booking for Sunday.

Other facilities, in less populated communities, were offering appointments much sooner. 

Woods-Fehr said it's tempting to brush the symptoms off as a sign of a cold and avoid the lineup by simply isolating at home, but he feels a moral obligation to follow advice from public health. 

"It's still frustrating to know [these are] the barriers put in place. If we think that contact tracing and early testing are some of our tools to get out of this, why is it so difficult?" he said.

When the Saskatoon facility opened, it posted a wait time of more than six hours; the Regina site had a wait of three to four hours at the same point. Prince Albert's site reported a four to five hour wait at about 1:30 p.m., while wait times in Yorkton were under 30 minutes.

Kyla Duke, whose daughter tested positive for COVID-19 on a rapid antigen test, said she waited almost 10 hours last week to get a call back from the HealthLine.