The province’s chief medical officer of health says public health must be cautious about the way they use testing.

The panel was asked if excess capacity in testing could be used to administer more tests and open up more aspects of healthcare services for those who may avail of services like physiotherapy.

Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says testing is a “one point in time” result.

Dr. Fitzgerald claims what your test shows today, may not be what your status is tomorrow or the next day. She says there is a false sense of security that can come with testing people.

If there is a low prevalence of the disease in the population, which the province has at the moment, then Dr. Fitzgerald says your risk of a negative result is higher.

Health Minister John Haggie weighed in on the topic as well. He says the topic of who to test and under what circumstances is a source of ongoing discussions among health ministers.

Haggie says Newfoundland and Labrador has the most generous testing criteria of any jurisdiction. The challenge, he says, is around there being no “screening test” for COVID-19.

Haggie says we have the testing capacity, and we will need it when the next wave comes. However, they cannot use tests in advance of symptoms in a way that actually alters what they do for individuals and what care they provide.

COVID-19 Numbers Differ Based on Method of Recording: Ball

Meanwhile, Premier Dwight Ball says not every province records testing numbers the same way.

For example, he says there are only two provinces in the country, one being Newfoundland and Labrador, that record and report on the number of people tested.

Most are recording their numbers by the total number of tests, and not people, as sometimes people are tested more than once.

Ball says if our numbers were based on the number of tests done, the province would be recording numbers 23 per cent greater than what the current figures show.