Thread by @dmmengmd

I am really troubled by the recommendation that symptomatic people move to rapid testing at home rather than government administered PCR. #abhealth #COVID19AB

It makes perfect sense to move to government administered rapid testing and only PCR test negatives. This would allow official recording of positive rapid tests and spare our lab system. #abhealth #COVID19AB

If there is no official COVID positive result, how will workers who acquire COVID at work be eligible for WCB? #abhealth #COVID19AB

If there is no official COVID positive result, how will people with long COVID symptoms prove their diagnosis? #abhealth #COVID19AB

If rapid tests are available only to the people who can afford to call around to pharmacies, line up, read the directions, administer the tests correctly, how will we ever contain this pandemic? #abhealth #COVID19AB

If there is no official COVID positive result, how will people be eligible for appropriate benefits, whether governmental or related to employment? #abhealth #COVID19AB

If the #s are headed so high that we won’t have capacity to test adequately, why are we not enacting appropriate measures to flatten the curve? Why are we allowing large venues to remain open? Why have we removed gathering restrictions on the unvaxed? #abhealth #COVID19AB

Why are we not taking every action possible to protect our most vulnerable, keep schools open, and keep our hospitals working for the #Albertans who have had medically necessary care delayed due to allowing our hospitals and ICUs to be overrun? #abhealth #COVID19AB

We are still feeling the effects of the #BestSummerEver and our hospital numbers have not yet recovered. HCWs are burned out. Albertans are much sicker than they were two years ago. Accepting an omicron🌊 leaves us with an even larger care deficit. #abhealth #COVID19AB

Please be cautious. Gather with small numbers and only if you have no symptoms. If you are lucky enough to have RATs, test before meeting with more vulnerable people. Home rapid tests cannot replace PCR without adequate registration of➕ results. #abhealth #COVID19AB