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SASKATOON – You can now pay for a COVID-19 test in Saskatchewan.
The Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) partnered with biotech company Quantum Genetics to come up with the COVID-19 tests.
The tests cost $ 150 and people can get the results in up to 48 hours.
Private testing is designed for people who do not show COVID-19 symptoms, but need proof of a negative test result for travel or work.
“We are only processing samples from asymptomatic people. It’s more of a screening process for companies to make sure they provide a safe working environment for employees, ”Heather Deobald, general manager of Quantum Genetix, told CTV News.
Deobald said the company’s phone has been ringing without interruption, from both small businesses and large corporations, since it announced the paid testing service.
The partnership follows the province’s struggle to meet the goal of 4,000 COVID-19 tests per day.
“Our testing capacity is not where it needs to be, so any public-private partnerships we can achieve that pushes toward higher capacity is good,” said microbiologist Kyle Anderson.
While Canada awaits a vaccine, Anderson believes mass testing is the best tool to fight the disease, but there should be no financial obstacles to testing.
“As long as you can still line up to get a test and the government is trying to do as many tests as possible, I think integrating them with the industry is fine,” Anderson said.
“But I don’t think we should ever resort to a system where we say, ‘Oh, the government just finished testing now because you can do it all in private.'”
If airlines and workplaces require proof of a negative COVID-19 test, it’s a key public test that keeps pace with demand, said Cory Neudorf, a professor of public health at the University of Saskatchewan.
“What we’re trying to do is make sure we don’t set up a tired duo system where if you’re able to pay, you can take a test and if you’re not, you’re not,” Neudorf said.
While Quantum’s private testing is only for travelers and employers right now, Saskatchewan Health Minister Paul Merriman said it could expand.
Merriman said Quantum could also be a source of backup tests in the event of a provincial lab machinery failure.
“We want to make sure we have some kind of backup that, if something happens with that machine, we have a physical backup and we have something ready and ready,” Merriman said.
Quantum Genetix is ready to process up to 350 tests per day by the end of December.
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