Key questions about rapid COVID tests – including how, where, and even why to get them – continued to confuse politicians and ordinary citizens on Thursday as the Ontario Science Table became the latest group to vote in favor a standardized “test-to-stay” program in schools.

Voluntary testing using rapid COVID tests could help reduce transmission in elementary schools, especially as the Delta variant continues to be dominant, according to the advisory table.

In new guidelines released Thursday, the advisory table recommends that when a public health unit or neighborhood sees an increase in the number of cases – the threshold being around 35 cases per 100,000 per week – that elementary school officials start a weekly voluntary test of vaccinated and unvaccinated people. .

The plan could help children without symptoms stay in class as COVID continues to emerge in some schools, according to the guidelines. A “test-to-stay” program, in which children are allowed to stay in the classroom if daily tests are negative, could be an alternative to isolating students from exposure.

The debate over rapid tests as a way to keep children in the classroom and out of isolation gathered pace throughout the fall, but took on new urgency with the arrival of Omicron. In late October, Ontario announced new testing measures, including take-home PCR tests – do-it-yourself versions of full lab tests – and the use of rapid antigen tests for asymptomatic and non-asymptomatic students. vaccinated.

PCR tests are more accurate and provide more information to health officials, but rapid antigen tests are cheaper and easier to do at home, and can be used in different situations, experts say.

Students will also be given five quick tests to take home over winter break, to take while they are on leave, and then before returning to class, though some experts have expressed concerns about the distribution of a large number of tests without specific guidelines on how they should be used.

“Yes [testing] is in everyone’s hands, which is great, and makes people feel a lot, a lot better and a lot more in control, which this unfortunately does opens up opportunities to break this case and contact the management of contacts, ”said Dr. Barry Pakes, the newly appointed York Region medical practice.

This means that if people trust rapid tests done at home, you run the risk that they will not pass a PCR test – the most detailed test done in a lab – if they test positive or not. do not disclose it to their close contacts. In those cases, health officials would also not be aware of new cases or potential outbreaks, he says.

They also wouldn’t be able to track things like the Omicron incidents without the PCR results, he adds.

Which isn’t to say they shouldn’t be used, but that they come with specific rules, he says. For example, some companies have used them, but have asked staff to take tests at specific intervals and then report the results.

A group of Toronto-based doctors also released a letter Thursday in favor of a testing approach, pushing back what they described as the “far-reaching” effects of school closures on children, at the same time. both academically and socially.

Dr Alanna Golden, a primary care physician in Toronto who signed the letter, says there is evidence that rapid tests, if used at regular intervals for entire classes or groups of students, are also effective in preventing the spread than isolation.

She points her finger a Lancet study who examined 201 schools in England and found that daily testing and isolation was about as effective in stopping transmission.

“No one will say it’s perfect. No one is going to say that we are not going to miss a positive COVID case. Nothing is perfect, ”she said. “But at the end of the day, it’s all a risk-reward [analysis]. “

Golden, who previously worked as a social worker in children’s mental health, says children have been “substantially injured” by blockages, and rates of everything from eating disorders to obesity in going through abuse, have increased accordingly.

“We’re going to see the impact of this for years and years and years and years to come.”

The new direction of the science table provides specific rules for when such tests should take place, as health advocates demand more clarity on how tests are used.

Despite current concerns about the Omicron variant, Delta continues to be the dominant strain in Ontario and around the world. This particular strain is difficult to control because infected people have a higher viral load that peaks more quickly after infection compared to earlier strains, according to the scientific table.

The amount of virus in the systems of those infected is the reason Delta is more contagious – but it also makes it easier to detect using rapid tests, the brief notes.

In Queen’s Park, opposition parties kept pressure on Premier Doug Ford for a wider rollout of free rapid antigen tests as new daily COVID-19 infections hit 1,290 – their highest level in six months – and families are about to come together for the holiday season.

“People want to be sure they’re not spreading COVID,” NDP MP Catherine Fife (Waterloo) said.

Ford retorted that the province was distributing 34 million tests, but was wrong in saying that parents can use some of the packaged tests for school children to take home over the Christmas holidays to check themselves regularly for COVID before the recovery in-person classes in January.

“Eleven million tests… are distributed to each student’s home, and they come in sets of five so they can be used by their parents, siblings, anyone in the home. This is what you call proper distribution, ”he said during daily Legislative Question Period in an exchange with Fife.

But the government previously announced that the rapid tests were only for students, who are instructed to test themselves every three or four days during the holidays in hopes of keeping infected children out of class when schools return.

The confusion created by Ford is dangerous, Fife said.

“The Prime Minister is inventing it as he goes,” she accused. “When you are inconsistent in your message, especially during a public health crisis, it is irresponsible.”

Ford’s comments came a day after Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott appeared to tell the legislature that anyone can get a quick test for free at a pharmacy, which isn’t the case.

Her statement was later clarified by an email from a spokesperson who said she was “referring to the fact that anyone who needs a test, as per provincial guidelines, can get one in Ontario.” .

Ford said 34 million tests have been distributed to 40,000 sites across the province, including high-risk workplaces, daycares, nursing homes with random testing due to begin within days of areas where many people congregate.

“We’re setting up pop-up locations in malls and malls, in transit locations, in workplaces, to make sure it’s convenient for people to get tested.”

The new guidelines come as confusion reigns over why the millions of rapid tests purchased by the federal government have not been more widely deployed across the country.

According to federal numbers, the government purchased nearly 95 million tests, of which about 85 percent were sent to provinces or the federal allocation, and yet only about 15 million – or about 16 percent – were reported as used until here.

Ontario did a better-than-average job using its tests, according to those same numbers. Almost a third of the 31 million tests the province has received so far have been reported as used.