VANCOUVER – As some hospitals deal with large numbers of people with mild or no symptoms seeking COVID-19 testing, an Ontario doctor asks Canadians to avoid going to the emergency room unless symptoms are in moderate or severe.
Dr Andrew Healey, chief of emergency medicine at the William Osler Health System in the Greater Toronto Area, said the influx of people seeking COVID-19 testing with mild symptoms is “delaying care for other patients”. .”
“We have to go through the triage process or the enrollment process for each of those patients. It takes up very important resources that are … pretty limited at the moment,” he told CTV News.
Healey stresses that people experiencing symptoms related to symptoms that cannot be managed at home, like chest pain, shortness of breath, or a high fever, should go to the emergency room. Otherwise, people with mild or no symptoms should go to a testing center.
“If you know that the main reason you are going to the doctor is for a swab or you have mild symptoms and you want to confirm that you have COVID-19, the purpose of the testing centers is for that goal,” he said. “The emergency department really can’t manage such levels of volume.”
The highly infectious variant of Omicron has fueled an increase in COVID-19 cases across Canada. As a result, capacity at COVID-19 testing centers across Canada has been limited. In some parts of the country, people have had to wait 10 days or longer to make an appointment at a testing center.
Healey said people who are facing mild symptoms and can’t find an appointment to get tested for COVID-19 should instead stay home and self-isolate.
“We want people to confirm that they have a diagnosis in some way. But we also understand that … currently there is limited access to testing,” he said.
“If you have symptoms, there is no test that will help you recover from the disease, so you need to isolate yourself, so you should isolate yourself at home.”
.
