Saskatchewan to open drive-through COVID-19 testing sites Tuesday

The Saskatchewan government is set to open drive-through COVID-19 testing sites in Regina and Saskatoon.

The government revealed the news in a media release Friday, when it also reported four new cases and four more recoveries.

Scott Livingstone, the CEO of the Saskatchewan Health Authority, said this is another way the authority is trying to reduce barriers to people getting tested.

Drive-through tests won’t need a referral from HealthLine 811 or a doctor, and Livingstone said a whole family could be tested at the same time.

The sites will be first come first served, so Health Minister Jim Reiter asked people to be patient as there could be wait times.

Those who want to be tested will need a valid Saskatchewan Health Card, and masks will be required during the registration process.

The Regina site is to open Tuesday at the International Trade Centre at Evraz Place. It’s to operate Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., and Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

In Saskatoon, the site is to open Thursday at 3630 Thatcher Ave. It’s to be in operation Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from noon to 7:15 p.m., and Saturdays and Sundays from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

“We don’t know at this time how popular they’re going to be, and so until we know how popular they’re going to be and how many days a week and what type of hours that we should be running, we’re going to start slow and see how the public is accepting of this type of testing, and then we’ll look at how we expand that,” explained Livingstone.

He said the authority expects the sites to be operational for about 18 months, but that could change.

There’s a possibility of drive-through testing sites being added in more areas of the province, but for the time being, Livingstone said there doesn’t seem to be a big need.

“Right now we do have lots of capacity in rural Saskatchewan for COVID testing and we’ve never come close to that capacity to date,” said Livingstone.

Dr. Saqib Shahab, the province’s chief medical health officer, explained that about half the tests done in the province come from Regina and Saskatoon.

The government also announced voluntary in-school testing is to begin the week of Sept. 14.

The first three locations for the testing are Campbell Collegiate in Regina (Sept. 16), Holy Cross High School in Saskatoon (Sept. 17) and Carlton Comprehensive High School in Prince Albert (Sept. 17-18).

Consent forms are to be distributed to students next Wednesday.

Testing capacity

With drive-through testing and testing in schools set to start, Livingstone said health officials have been aggressively working to expand the capacity to process those tests in the provincial lab.

Previously it had been announced the province wanted lab capacity to be up to 4,000 tests per day around the time school was back in session. Livingstone said currently, the lab would be able to meet that target for one day.

“We currently don’t have capacity to meet seven-day-a-week (demand) at 4,000; that is what we’re actively working on,” he said.

He explained that more than 50 positions have been posted to fill across lab services and more than 150 applications have been received. The SHA is bringing more people on board every day.

A look at the numbers

The four new cases reported Friday — one in each of the north-central, central-west, southwest and south-central zones — increased the total in Saskatchewan to date to 1,638.

The four recoveries announced moved that total to 1,578. To date, 24 residents of the province have died after testing positive for COVID-19.

There are 36 active cases being reported.

Three people are in hospital in Saskatoon, with two receiving inpatient care and one in intensive care.

There have been 421 cases from the south area (217 southwest, 193 south-central, 11 southeast), 353 in the far north (347 far northwest, six far northeast), 267 in the Saskatoon area, 267 from the north zone (130 northwest, 71 north-central, 66 northeast), 198 in the central zone (164 central-west, 34 central-east) and 132 in the Regina region.

The total number of cases comprises 831 community contacts, 487 people without any known exposures, 250 travellers, and 70 cases that are still being investigated. It also includes 66 health-care workers.

So far, there have been 526 cases in the 20-to-39 age range, 501 between the ages of 40 and 59, 278 from ages 60 to 79, 275 involving people 19 and under, and 58 involving people 80 and over.

There were 1,221 tests done in the province Thursday to increase the total to date to 144,672.