Canada's abandoning of COVID-19 testing leaves us vulnerable to future variants, experts say

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Canada is entering a period of relative calm as the Omicron-driven fifth wave subsides across much of the country. But our ability to track new and existing variants is in jeopardy with testing access still heavily restricted — leaving us vulnerable to pandemic whiplash.

Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada's chief public health officer, said Friday that COVID-19 levels have continued to decline in most of Canada, with weekly case counts down 26 per cent and hospitalizations and ICU admissions down 20 per cent compared to the previous week. 


Nevertheless, as the virus is still circulating widely, some jurisdictions are reporting weekly increases in case counts and others could see additional bumps in the weeks ahead," she said.

"At the same time, there is a continued high volume of PCR testing being performed and ongoing genetic sequencing of circulating virus variants." 

But the level of COVID-19 testing in Canada has actually dropped off dramatically since the start of the Omicron wave — with more than 100,000 daily tests being performed in early December, about 150,000 in early January, down to just over 50,000 as of Friday. 

That makes it nearly impossible to get a clear sense of what the true number of COVID-19 cases are in Canada, and severely limits the number of testing samples that can undergo genomic sequencing to detect for the presence of variants.

The level of COVID-19 testing in Canada has dropped off dramatically since the start of the Omicron wave, making it nearly impossible to get a clear sense of the true number of COVID-19 cases. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)

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