‘Everybody knew this fall surge was coming:’ What went wrong with Ontario’s COVID testing
Article content
With colder weather on the horizon in many parts of Canada, experts have said that testing is key to stopping a second wave of the coronavirus. Yet it’s clear a second wave is already well underway in many places.
On this week’s Down to Business, Richard Warnica, a staff writer for the National Post, discussed the business of testing.
Warnica spent countless hours looking at testing in Ontario — where the daily new case load recently edged above 1,000. He found the province has not been able to meet its testing needs for a multitude of reasons — including ill-timed government funding shortfalls, breakdowns in the supply chain, archaic technology and more.
Warnica said the one throughline that ties it all together may be a lack of foresight: Everyone knew that when flu season started, about 50,000 to 100,000 people would be walking around Ontario with COVID-like symptoms and would need testing. But the province is still not able to sustain testing in that range, even as the economic recovery hangs in the balance.
Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher and Google Play, where you can also subscribe to get new episodes every Wednesday morning.
If you have any questions about the show, or if there are topics you want us to tackle, email us: [email protected].
