N.B. COVID-19 roundup: More Red Cross testing support coming
CBC
The Canadian Red Cross has the capacity to send up to four teams to New Brunswick communities experiencing testing backlogs as the holidays bring record COVID-19 case numbers.
There are more than 2,300 active cases of the coronavirus in the province, with a record 486 announced Wednesday.
In Zone 2, the Saint John area, there's a backlog of nearly 2,500 PCR lab-test requests. The province said Wednesday it's diverting more resources to the area and extending the hours at its assessment centre.
Jon Spicer, manager of emergency management at the Canadian Red Cross in New Brunswick said a team made up of four people has been deployed to the Saint John area. He said over a shift of eight to 12 hours, the team can doing up to 150 tests a day.
"I know the team is working as hard and fast at they can," he said.
The team was previously deployed to the Fredericton assessment centre.
He said the Red Cross can deploy three more teams "wherever the need is deemed the greatest."
One of the team members is a nurse licensed in New Brunswick.
Spicer said the second mobile testing team is set to arrive on Jan. 10. The members are coming from all over the country, some from Ontario and Alberta, while others are already based in Atlantic Canada.
"These folks all come off of our readiness roster and they support deployments wherever the need is greatest in the country," he said. "The makeup of the team is depending on the availability of our personnel across the country."
The tests they administer are lab-based, official confirmation of a COVID-19 infection. They are different from rapid tests, which people can take at home and are also in short supply in some areas.
In the Saint John area, people who have Public Health referrals, health-care workers and those who work or live in vulnerable settings are being scheduled for a test within 48 hours, the province previously said.
People who are symptomatic or have had a positive rapid test are expected to hear back within 120 hours, or five days.
Zones 1 and 3, the Moncton and Fredericton regions, are also seeing backlogs, with a backup of about 150 requests in the Moncton region and about 450 in the Fredericton region.
Intelligence regarding foreign interference sometimes didn't make it to the prime minister's desk in 2021 because Canada's spy agency and the prime minister's national security adviser didn't always see eye to eye on the nature of the threat, according to a recent report from one of Canada's intelligence watchdogs.