Swab tests for COVID-19 are ongoing in all communities of the Northwest Territories, a senior medical official confirmed on Wednesday.
"About 700 tests have come from Yellowknife. All regions have been tested for COVID-19 if (people) fit the case definition for testing," said Dr. Sarah Cook, territorial medical director with the Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Authority. Cook was speaking alongside chief public health officer Dr. Kami Kandola in a teleconference with reporters.
The tests are available in all communities of the NWT, even remote ones that don't have full-time nurses.
"Communities without nurses have health representatives so people don't need to travel (to be tested) unless they have severe symptoms," Cook said.
It takes about one week for test results to be known but Cook said there is variability because of the distance some swabs have to be transported and also because of a backlog at the microbiology laboratory down south.
"The average is still four days but there is variability. One of the factors is the backlog at the Alberta lab. We know they’re working 24 hours a day at the provincial lab in Alberta. But sometimes it’s more than (four days), sometimes it’s less. It depends on where the swab is coming from and how many samples the lab is processing."
Testing on NWT's first case
After the NWT's first confirmed case was announced on March 21, that individual is recovering at home and has been tested a second time for coronavirus.
After a person infected with COVID takes two tests and both come back negative, the individual can be considered recovered. Kandola said the testing process for the infected individual in Yellowknife was ongoing.
"The individual wasn't hospitalized and has minimal symptoms. We’re in the process of testing them the second time. Once recovered we’ll let public know the second test was negative," she said.
Health authorities traced the contacts of that individual and the 17 people the person had contact with were tested for COVID-19 and the results all came back negative. They also underwent 14 days of self-isolation.