A negative rapid test ‘doesn’t mean anything’ warns region’s top doctor

High demand for rapid antigen test kits in the lead up to the holidays has the region’s chief medical officer of health Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang offering a warning about their use.

A negative test is not an indication that someone doesn’t have the virus and should not be used as an indication that it's safe to interact with people outside of your household, she said. 

The warning is particularly important with the Omicron variant of COVID-19 infecting four to eight times more people than the Delta variant.

A negative test “doesn’t mean anything.”

“What you have to take away from those results is, if it’s positive, consider yourself positive, stay home, self isolate,” she said.

If it’s negative, you can’t ignore any of the other protective measures public health has been urging everyone to follow over the holidays, including ensuring everyone is vaccinated, maintaining physical distancing, keeping family get-togethers small and trying to reduce the numbers of households that are mixing.

“In the era of Omicron, it can miss infectious cases and it can come up later as positive when the person was actually infectious earlier,” she said of the rapid tests. “So, you can’t rely on that to say ‘Oh, I’m good, I’m not infectious right now’ as I’m heading to this party.”

Symptoms like a runny nose, fever and cough are other indicators someone could be positive for the virus and should not be around other people.

Wang issued the warning during Friday's media briefing in which she confirmed Omicron became the dominant variant in Ontario last week.

“As projected by the Ontario Science Table, we are seeing our COVID-19 cases rise more quickly than ever before,” Wang said. 

Waterloo region reported 130 additional cases Wednesday, pushing the number of active cases up to 947.

Due to the high infection rate of the virus, the Ministry of Health has shifted to a high surge model for case and contact management.

That process is now in place, Wang said. 

What it means is initial contact for all COVID-19 cases in the province is being managed by a provincial workforce who will be providing testing and self isolation information to anyone infected with the virus and who may have attended a high-risk setting like a hospital or nursing home.

Public Health is then following up with those cases.

Wang said because Omicron is present in the community, anyone who has been exposed, even if fully vaccinated, should self isolate for 10 days, monitor for symptoms and seek testing as soon as possible.

All household contacts of positive cases must self isolate regardless of their immunization status, she said.

People should only seek testing at assessment centres if they are:

• Showing COVID-19 symptoms;
• Have been exposed to a confirmed case of the virus, as informed by your public health unit or exposure notification through the COVID Alert app;
• A resident or work in a setting that has a COVID-19 outbreak, as identified and informed by your local public health unit; and
• Eligible for testing as part of a targeted testing initiative directed by the Ministry of Health or the Ministry of Long-Term Care.

The Cambridge-North Dumfries Community COVID-19 Assessment Centre on Holiday Inn Drive remains open from 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Monday to Friday and 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on holidays and weekends. The testing centre is closed Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.

Grand River and St. Mary's hospitals also provide COVID testing by appointment only.

Public Health urges anyone who has made an appointment to cancel if they cannot attend. Some testing centres had been experiencing no-shows of close to 20 per cent for booked appointments.

All results are reported to the Ontario Laboratories Information System, the ministry’s repository for test results, and can take a few days to become available.