N.B. COVID-19 roundup: Province included GeneXpert tests in daily total amid strike concerns
CBC
The province included GeneXpert COVID-19 tests in the daily total last week for the first time during the pandemic after the CUPE strike brought down the numbers and provoked concerns about the accuracy of case data.
Department of Health spokesperson Gail Harding confirmed GeneXpert tests, which are conducted at regional hospital laboratories and provide rapid results, have never been part of the COVID-19 dashboard testing totals.
Officials did not immediately respond to questions about whether GeneXpert testing was increased to compensate for strike-related testing centre closures and reduced capacity at the province's microbiology lab at the Dr. Georges-L-Dumont University Hospital Centre in Moncton.
Last Thursday, Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Jennifer Russell was asked during the COVID briefing whether she was concerned Public Health might be missing a significant number of positive cases by not testing at the province's full capacity. She replied that 727 tests were conducted the previous day.
In addition to the 300 polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, tests, reflected on the COVID-19 dashboard, there were 427 GeneXpert tests, "which are also PCR," she said.
"The results collected by GeneXpert testing are not recorded on the COVID-19 dashboard," Harding said in an emailed statement.
They have never been, she said.
GeneXpert COVID-19 testing has been conducted in New Brunswick since April 2020.
It can produce results in about 45 minutes instead of the Dumont lab taking between 24 and 48 hours, including travel time.
"GeneXPert tests are typically used at the discretion of the regional medical officer of health for a rapid result," said Harding. She did not elaborate.
Earlier in the pandemic, they were reserved for certain pre-op patients.
GeneXpert tests are conducted at Horizon and Vitalité hospital labs in Edmundston, Campbellton, Bathurst, Miramichi, Moncton, Fredericton and Saint John.
In May 2020, the seven labs had a combined capacity of about 200 tests a day, Dr. John Dornan, now interim president and CEO of Horizon, had said.
Before the CUPE strike, now into Day 12, more than 1,000 PCR tests were being conducted daily, but the daily totals dropped to a few hundred.
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