In an effort to ration COVID-19 tests, the Ontario government announcing only those with the most serious cases will be tested.
The following groups have been prioritized for testing:
o Symptomatic contacts of confirmed cases, until community transmission is established
o Individuals admitted to hospital with acute respiratory illness
o Health care workers with acute respiratory illness
o Individuals with acute respiratory illness who reside in long term care homes and retirement homes
o Individuals with acute respiratory illness who reside in other institutions and as directed by local public health officials
o Health care workers as part of a health care institutional outbreak and as directed by local public health officials
o First Nations community members living on-reserve with acute respiratory illness
The Ministry of Health in Ontario is asking people who have symptoms of COVID-19 (new dry cough, fever, difficulty breathing, potentially some other flu-like symptoms) to use a self-assessment tool –- first, then after you have used the self-assessment tool, call your doctor, telehealth or public health.
The link to the self -assessment tool is here: https://www.ontario.ca/page/2019-novel-coronavirus-covid-19-self-assessment