Ontario residents waiting days to get COVID-19 test, resulting in potential discrepancy in reported cases

While some Ontarians spent hours in a virtual queue in hopes of getting their third dose of COVID-19 vaccine, others were on an equally challenging quest to get a COVID-19 test—with some residents reporting being unable to book an appointment for up to five days.

Multiple people have confirmed to CTV News Toronto they have been unable to book a COVID-19 test in Ontario in a timely manner, despite being symptomatic or potentially exposed to the virus through a close contact.

While some people reported being able to get a COVID-19 test within 24 hours after a lengthy search, many said they couldn’t get one for at least two to five days after checking assessment centres, hospitals and pharmacies.

“I went to book a test last Wednesday afternoon. First available rapid tests I could find nearby were Friday afternoon and first available PCRs were Saturday morning,” one person said on Twitter. “Could have been worse but there definitely wasn't anything within 24 hours.”

“Two days trying to get tested after being told by the Region of Peel and (Peel District School Board) to get tested immediately. Earliest I could book was December 24,” another wrote.

The lag appears to be impacting multiple health units across Ontario, with residents from Toronto, Hamilton, London, and Ottawa reporting challenges.

At least one person said on social media that they had to book a test in a neighbouring county because they couldn’t get an appointment.

Dr. Zain Chagla, an infectious diseases specialist at McMaster University, told CTV News Toronto on Monday that as the number of COVID-19 infections go up, more and more people will need to be tested.

“Our first test in the city right now as I’m checking is Friday, December 24 at 8:20 in the evening … so that's not great for someone who has symptoms today that can't access a test,” he said. “A single case generates 30 contacts, which means a lot of them need to come back tested. The fact that we're in the winter time and again, kids are symptomatic with other illnesses, adults are symptomatic with other illnesses and you just have a lot of COVID in our community”

“It's really tricky and health-care resources are stretched between health care, like basic health care, between the vaccine effort, and trying to deal with testing, but you know, there's only so much health care to go around.”

ONTARIO CASE COUNT COULD REALLY BE AS HIGH AS 20K

Chagla said the high transmissibility of the new Omicron variant, which has a doubling time of about 2.7 days according to Ontario’s COVID Science Advisory Table, is making case and contact management more difficult, especially when a diagnosis can’t be confirmed without a test.

“If you can't get a test within five days and a day or two for result, you know, you probably have gone through two or three generations of this virus,” he said.

Chagla added the testing delays make it more challenging to determine the true impact of COVID-19 on a community, resulting in a significant discrepancy in the number of daily COVID-19 cases reported to the public and the real time data.

“Presumably our numbers right now, even though they're 3,000 to 4,000, are probably 15,000 to 20,000 considering the level of disease and just basically the inability to access testing for people.”

Ontario has reported more than 3,000 new COVID-19 cases for the last four days in a row, resulting in an increase in the province’s seven-day average of daily infections. As of Monday, that number stood at 2,863, up from 1,328 at this point last week.

The province’s positivity rate has also risen drastically, reaching about 9.7 per cent with just over 44,100 COVID-19 tests processed in a 24-hour period.

“It is troublesome, you know, because again we probably do need to have serious discussions about who we test and who kind of needs to just stay at home or rapid test or something along those lines,” Chagla said. “It's tricky because this is going to be our situation. The case counts are only getting higher and again, you know, we're probably going to have weeks of this situation where testing is not going to be able to keep up with everyone who's symptomatic in the community and all their contacts.”

Chagla added this causes further challenges for people who cannot afford to take a full week off work while they wait to get their COVID-19 test and then wait for the results. Many of those people may also go into a vulnerable sector or continue to move around the city because they can’t make an appointment.

CTV News Toronto has reached out to Ontario Health to determine if any action is being taken to increase testing capacity in the province. They have yet to reply.

PHARMACIES WORKING UNDER 50% CAPACITY

There are about 600 pharmacies in Ontario offering COVID-19 testing, and many on social media said they were the first place they looked when seeking a swab. However, most pharmacies you have to check individually in order to get an appointment and very few offer walk in tests, especially for symptomatic patients.

Justin Bates, the president of the Ontario Pharmacists Association, says that there’s a shortage of labour “across the board” in all avenues of health care, resulting in a “dichotomy of demand” with more people wanting COVID-19 tests.

He also said that pharmacies are working under strict capacity restrictions as of this week due to new provincial guidelines. Capacity limits have been reduced in Ontario to about 50 per cent for most indoor settings, including restaurants, retail stores and pharmacies—something that Bates says “makes no logical sense.”

“It's kind of a contrarian policy to say you need to meet the demand and it's going to be lots, but you have to have a 50 per cent reduction in your total in-store capacity and in my mind that's contrary into getting focused on shots and arms. So we've formally asked the provincial government for pharmacies to be exempt, even if it's just pharmacies that are participating in the testing and vaccinations to make it equitable.”

CTV News Toronto has reached out to the provincial government to find out if they will consider lifting some capacity restrictions when it comes to pharmacies.

A health-care worker tests a woman at a pop-up COVID-19 assessment centre at the Angela James Arena during the COVID-19 pandemic in Toronto May 19, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

Bates added that he is pushing for pharmacies to also distribute rapid antigen tests as part of the free provincial program. As of Monday, rapid COVID-19 test kits are available to residents at select pop-up locations across Ontario; however at pharmacies, customers have to pay to receive the swabs as the facilities get the tests directly from the manufacturers.

The tests can detect proteins of the virus in the body, but officials have said that if the test is positive, individuals should not use it as proof of a diagnosis. Instead, anyone who tests positive using a rapid test should book an appointment for a PCR test, something that Chagla says may be further draining resources.

• MORE: What you need to know about getting a rapid test in Ontario

He argues that rapid tests are useful in identifying positive COVID-19 cases and instructing people to isolate in a timely fashion, but by encouraging everyone to get an additional PCR test it takes a spot away from others who should be prioritized.

“We probably should not be testing people who have a positive rapid test by confirming it by PCR because it's just kind of useless at that point. The odds are, it's probably a real positive, considering how much COVID is in our community.”

The good news for others waiting to get a COVID-19 test is that Chalga said the disease can be identified a few weeks after being contracted.