Missing addresses force a reboot of regional testing numbers

Embarrassed by 577 missing addresses in the first attempt to provide regional COVID-19 testing data in New Brunswick, health officials went back to the drawing board Tuesday and compiled an alternate and complete list of where people have taken their tests rather than where they live.

It confirms only light testing has been done in dozens of communities in northeastern New Brunswick from Miramichi up through the Acadian Peninsula something that has been helping the virus to hide, according to New Brunswick's chief medical officer of health.

Dr. Jennifer Russell, who is originally from the northeastern city of Bathurst, told reporters Monday she believes COVID-19 is present in the region even though no cases have been diagnosed there yet.

On Tuesday, Russell said she wants more people with symptoms all through the north, from Edmundston across to Miramichi, to come forward.

"I received information from colleagues in this area and they believe one issue is that people do not want to be tested so they don't call 811 [for screening]," said Russell.

"So for those individuals who have concerns regarding tests, I would like to encourage them to call 811. I would like to encourage them to call their family doctors as well."

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According to the province's new numbers, 396 tests for COVID-19 have been done in the northeastern counties of Northumberland and Gloucester so far with no positive results. That's about 325 tests short of the national average for populations of that size, and Russell said no confirmed cases likely means only that they haven't been found yet.

"My parents live there and I tell them to stay home, wash your hands, don't go out unless you have to," said Russell.

"I do not want anyone to have a false sense of security."

Just across the Chaleur Bay, health officials in Quebec have already found 37 cases in a similar rural but smaller population in the region of Gaspsieles-de-la-Madeleine.

The new provincial data also confirmed the only area in New Brunswick that has had testing in numbers close to national averages is in the southeast in communities around Moncton.

Known as health zone 1, the region has had 1,283 tests done to date.

That's the same number of tests as zones 2 (Saint John), 4 (Edmundston), 6 (Bathurst) and 7 (Miramichi) combined, even though as a group they have 70 per cent more people in them than zone 1.

The province is convinced the new numbers are reliable and that tracking where tests are being done instead of the addresses of people taking tests will provide a credible account of who is being served.

But there appears to have been no alternative.

Too many unreadable or absent postal codes from patient paperwork had made it impossible to know where 577 people tested so far live. In re-evaluating the issue, officials realized they did have information on how many tests have been done in each region and felt that was better to track under the circumstances.

"There was an issue around postal codes so what we've done now moving forward is we're capturing the data based on where the actual test was done, not based on the postal code of the patient," said Russell.