British Columbians turned away at COVID-19 test sites amid extreme cold, capacity limits

As Metro Vancouver COVID-19 testing sites face demand issues, cold weather has also forced several locations to close, prompting some British Columbians to drive around for hours in search of a test.

Bharti Jain from Richmond started to feel symptoms last Thursday. She checked online to find the nearest testing centre was at YVR, but despite the site still saying it is open, when she arrived she discovered it is closed due to weather conditions.

“Once we reached there, surprisingly like there is a line of 20 something cars and everyone’s going with the same expectation. And there is just one security person and he’s giving the same details to each one of us that the center has been closed due to weather condition, there’s no signage is nothing on the website. Nothing at all,” she explained. “So that was the beginning.”

Once she got back home, Jain said she searched on the Fraser Health website and made an appointment in Surrey for Monday. With a sore throat and body aches, she made the hour-long trip to the site.

“We reached there and the same story got repeated,” she said, adding she was never notified her appointment was cancelled.

“It’s really frustrating because if I am going to do the right thing, I need to inform the people I’ve met (with), but if I’m just having the common flu, why should I put them in a panic mode? I need to know for myself to what I’m going through for my family, for myself.”

After returning from her cancelled appointment, Jain said Fraser Health updated the website and closed nearly half the centers.

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Meanwhile, Bonnie Angelini’s 18-year-old daughter tried to get tested in their hometown of Maple Ridge, but was turned away. She booked an appointment and drove to Coquitlam only to be greeted by a “a small, small sign” saying it closed due to weather.

Angelini says she searched online to see if the health authority notified the public about the closure and found it had posted the announcement on Twitter three hours before her appointment.

“But how do you know to go and look for a notification to see if something shut down when you have a booked appointment? You just assume you show up … So if you’ve cancelled or closed down something, the expectation would be you’d notify anybody that has an appointment. ‘Sorry, we’re close due to extreme weather will honour tomorrow,'” she said. “But instead, the notification on Twitter said if you come early to your appointment, we will take you in the honour system. And it was kind of odd if you’re notifying people through Twitter to come early.”

The miscommunication is concerning to Angelini, who says her family and she would feel better knowing if they are at risk of spreading the virus among themselves or others.

“If we have already been around other people, our concern is just knowing did we spread something that we don’t know,” she said. “And that just didn’t feel very good knowing that we don’t even know if one is infected or not. And how many people around us could be affected by our own actions not knowing — because I’m not sick. My husband isn’t sick. My daughter sick, my son has sniffles. So how do you really just say, Okay, let’s shut down everything and not really know, do I have COVID? Have I affected other people? And that was our biggest concern.”

In an statement, Vancouver Coastal Health says to preserve supply, people do not need to get tested if they are fully vaccinated, have mild symptoms, and are able to self-isolate until symptoms improve.

Angelini’s daughter finally got tested by being first in line another day.

Meanwhile, Jain says she’s done running around and is even starting to feel better. She says the province could help by sending rapid tests to homes so people do not need to go to testing sites.

Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley are under extreme cold warnings Tuesday. The temperature at Vancouver International Airport on Tuesday morning at 5 a.m. was reported at -12 C, but with the wind chill it felt more like -20 C.

Because of these weather conditions, Vancouver Coastal Health says some sites have been closed.

The YVR and St. Vincent testing sites have been temporarily closed and staff have been sent to other clinics in the meantime.

People hoping to get tested can do so at the UBC, ICBC, and several Urgent & Primary Care Centres.

In Fraser Health on Monday, service was reduced at the Burnaby and Coquitlam testing and immunization centres. The centre in Langley was closed completely. While all three sites have since reopened, testing will stop at 4 p.m. In addition, vaccination appointments have been suspended through Wednesday at the Langley, Coquitlam, Surrey 66, and Burnaby sites.

“Though several thousand testing and immunization appointments have been impacted by the service adjustments on Dec. 27, 28, and 29, we are reaching out directly to all individuals with appointments on December 28 and 29 to redirect them to alternate locations in our region,” says a statement from a spokesperson.

“Alternatively, affected individuals may also rebook their appointments. Currently, there are more than 50,000 immunization appointments available at sites across our region between now and Jan. 16th.”

For the latest testing site information, visit the BCCDC website.

– With files from Monika Gul and Claire Fenton