B.C. COVID-19 testing to focus on those at greatest risk of severe illness

COVID-19 testing in B.C. will now largely be reserved for unvaccinated adults and those who are or work with people who are at greater risk of severe illness due to the virus.

Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says the Omicron variant is so prevalent and spreading so quickly, nearly everyone is a close contact at all times.

“We don’t need to isolate if a friend or family member know that they have COVID because there are many more people who have not been tested who may have it, as well. We have to treat this across the board as if we’ve been exposed,” Henry said Friday.

Testing will generally be reserved for British Columbians who are clinically vulnerable, pregnant, unvaccinated adults, and those who work with people who are at risk, such as in health-care settings.

Henry says with other illnesses like measles, the incubation time is long enough that public health can get ahead of the cases. However, she says that is not possible with Omicron.

“Early on in this pandemic, even up until the Delta wave, we were able to find most people in that five to seven-day incubation period and have them isolate … This is highly infectious now and it has a shorter incubation period,” she said.

“COVID-19 is no longer an infection for which contact tracing is an effective intervention,” Henry declared.

Dr Henry: Rule of thumb if not feeling well stay home until you are feeling better. Particularly if you have a fever stay home, stay away from others.#bcpoli #covid19 @CityNewsVAN

— LizaYuzda (@LizaYuzda) January 21, 2022

Age remains the greatest risk of hospitalizations, Henry says, adding vaccination offers the strongest protection against severe illness.

“If we look at young people who are vaccinated, and even older people who are vaccinated with three doses, your risk of having severe enough illness that you need hospitalization is negligible. It’s under one per cent,” she said, adding two doses also substantially reduces your risk.

On Thursday, 891 people were listed as hospitalized with COVID-19 in B.C., including 119 in the ICU. There were 15 more COVID-related deaths and a total of 58 active outbreaks in health-care facilities.

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The current isolation guidelines are five days for kids and fully vaccinated adults who have COVID-19 and 10 days for unvaccinated adults.

B.C.’s top doctor says the province is seeing its highest test positivity rates ever, with up to 30 per cent of tests coming back positive. Still, she says that’s relatively good news.

“Most people being tested for COVID-19 don’t have it,” she said, noting “70 per cent of people with symptoms who are being tested don’t have COVID-19.”

We will live with COVID-19 ‘for years to come’

COVID-19 has had a profound impact on how we live our lives, and Henry says we need to accept that it’s not going anywhere anytime soon.

“We need to understand and accept this virus has changed and has become part of what we will be living with for years to come,” she said, urging people to self-monitor for symptoms on a daily basis and use multiple layers of protection at work, in schools, and in health care.

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“If we have symptoms that might be COVID, that might be influenza, that might be a cold, we need to stay home until we feel better,” she said, urging everyone to have a “very low threshold” for staying home if they are feeling unwell.

Q re new policy allowing some ppl with covid to be in room with others
Dr Henry: Looking at how many ppl are testing positive on admission when there for other reasons & don't have respiratory illness. Decisions being made case by case#bcpoli #covid19 @CityNewsVAN

— LizaYuzda (@LizaYuzda) January 21, 2022

Although isolation time guidelines have been heavily reduced and the province has become much stricter with its criteria for testing, Henry says B.C. is “clearly not in a place where it’s endemic.”

British Columbians also need to remember the basics in COVID-19 safety precautions, she adds, including washing hands regularly, masking up in indoor public places, and sticking with smaller groups.