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On Wednesday, we learned that Ontario was experiencing a backlog of nearly 3,400 COVID-19 tests and a four-day wait for results. Health Minister Christine Elliott called this unacceptable, and there’s no debate about that. The important question is: what are the province, and the country, going to do about the situation since testing is such a crucial part of fighting the disease’s spread? We weren’t ready. Now what?

It’s fortunate there are better examples to follow. Examples of countries that have made aggressive coronavirus testing a priority. And I’m not just talking about nations with authoritarian regimes such as China, whose numbers are unreliable and whose practices violate the most basic respect owed to every human being. I’m talking liberal democracies, too, whose constraints and opportunities are more analogous to our own.

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Look, for example, at Iceland. (You thought I was going to say South Korea, didn’t you? Well not to worry, we’ll be getting to them very soon.)

Testing is a crucial part of fighting the disease’s spread

Iceland claims, very plausibly, to have tested a higher proportion of its citizens for coronavirus than any other country in the world. How?

It doesn’t hurt that the country has the advantage of a small population — fewer than 400,000 people. We can’t emulate that. What we can do is notice how Iceland’s bureaucracy was willing to get out of the way and allow local medical research company deCODE Genetics to swiftly and efficiently put widespread testing in place — testing anyone and everyone, not just those who were symptomatic.