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AHS identifies fever, dry cough or other cold or influenza-like symptoms as those potentially relevant to COVID-19. Before seeking referral for a test, AHS encourages Albertans to use its online screening tool to determine whether they should contact Health Link 811, which has been inundated with calls.

“You do not need to be tested for COVID-19 if in the past 14 days you have not travelled outside Canada or have not had contact with someone diagnosed as having COVID-19,” AHS states online.

While Alberta’s progress is significant, some believe the province still isn’t doing enough to capture the complete picture of active COVID-19 cases and “flatten the curve;” a term referring to measures aimed to keep the daily number of new cases at a manageable level for medical providers.

Dr. Peter Phillips, a clinical professor of medicine in the division of infectious diseases at the University of British Columbia, called testing criteria across the country too restrictive.

“We should not be just accepting that 14 days of self-isolation at home is going to be enough,” said Phillips, who acknowledged that tests are being rationed due to a limited supply.

But, he said, “if we don’t test (more people), then some of them are going to be infected.”

“Getting it just right is not really the target. If we don’t test enough, the consequence is more unrecognized cases in the community and that’s unrecognized spread. That’s the thing that needs to be really aggressively tackled,” said Phillips.

“Without testing, the public health department’s blindfolded.”

Photo by THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolito

Approximately 80 per cent of COVID-19 cases are considered mild. Phillips worried many of those won’t be caught due to narrow testing guidelines across Canada, leading to an increased risk of transmission.

While Hinshaw said Friday that the province is contemplating an expansion of its criteria for testing, research in China has showed asymptomatic transmission of the new coronavirus is rare and not a driver of the outbreak.

“When we look at all of those pieces of data, even though people may have a positive test, it’s not clear how important that is for transmission at this time, and so we are not testing people without symptoms in Alberta,” she said the day prior.

“The most important tests we do are (for) those who have symptoms, where we believe that risk of transmission is focused,” she said.

Two COVID-19 assessment centres are up and running in Calgary, along with three more in Edmonton and two in the AHS Central zone. Those sites are “busy, as you would expect,” according to Dr. Mark Joffe, AHS vice-president and medical director for northern Alberta.