03-16-2020, 07:59 PM
(03-16-2020, 07:11 PM)tomh009 Wrote: I think everyone would like to do more testing, it's a capacity issue: number of kits, number of people collecting tests, the lab capacity. I don't know where the bottleneck is currently, but I do expect the system is testing at max capacity.
There were 32 new confirmed cases in Ontario today. I think I read that 24 of those had traveled in the US.
Today's number of new cases was not comforting, but one day is a very small sample size, that's why I did it by week. Let's see how the rest of the week goes.
My understanding is that the number of kits is the issue, and the need to reserve them for cases where the result of the test will inform medical decisions- so not in the case of people with mild symptoms, even if they have traveled to hot spots.
I'm not sure whether 32 today is alarming or not. All sample sizes will be very small- only about eight thousand tests have been administered in Ontario. The actual number is much higher than 172, and it's been admitted that we don't know what it really is. Which makes sense, given that we're in a different phase now, not necessarily focused on tracing every single case, but keeping everyone more distant from one another to slow the spread.