Ontario discourages asymptomatic COVID-19 testing – September 24, 2020

At Queen’s Park, Dr. Barbara Yaffe (Ontario’s deputy chief medical officer of health), Dr. Vanessa Allen (the chief of medical microbiology at the Public Health Ontario Laboratory), Matthew Anderson (the president and CEO of Ontario Health), and Dr. Dirk Huyer (Ontario’s chief coroner and executive lead, COVID-19 Testing Approach) provide an update on testing for COVID-19 (coronavirus disease) in Ontario. The province is limiting COVID-19 testing to people experiencing symptoms or who have been in contact with known cases, in order to assure testing capacity for priority populations. The new restrictions comes a day after the government announced that some pharmacies will offer testing to asymptomatic people.