Health Minister Tyler Shandro (Gov't. of Alberta live stream)

By rdnewsNOW staff

$10 million

Alberta investing in targeted serology testing to track COVID-19 spread

Jun 23, 2020 | 3:55 PM

Alberta is investing $10 million into targeted serology testing in a bid to help track the spread of COVID-19 across the province.

Serology testing is used to detect the presence of antibodies in a person’s blood, indicating that a person has been exposed to the COVID-19 virus in the past. This is different from the robust polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing already available to all Albertans, which is the most effective way to test if anyone currently has the virus.

Alberta Health is investing in four voluntary public health studies, which will serologically test specific groups of Albertans for the virus. Alberta Health Services (AHS) will also make serology testing available for specific clinical purposes where testing can inform treatment decisions.

Alberta is the first province in Canada to make this targeted serology testing available, the province says in a release.

“Investing in these focused studies of select groups will help us get a better sense of the situation in Alberta and learn more about the virus,” says Health Minister Tyler Shandro. “The more we know about how COVID-19 is spreading, the better we can protect Albertans.”

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“We anticipate that there are people in the province who have been infected with COVID-19 and either were not tested, or were unaware that they had the virus,” noted Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta’s chief medical officer of health. “Investing in these representative public health studies will help us understand what percentage of Albertans have a history of infection, and how to improve our health response.”

The $10-million investment will fund two pediatric studies that will measure COVID-19 antibody prevalence among groups of Calgary and Edmonton children until 2022. A third study will test samples from blood collected for other purposes across the province, and a fourth will regularly test select Albertans over the age of 45 to help officials better estimate the number of people exposed to COVID-19.

The province says investing in serology studies will allow Alberta to better estimate the number of people who have previously contracted COVID-19 and learn about how the virus is spreading over time.

As well, Alberta Precision Laboratories will offer serology testing for specific clinical purposes and funded population-level serology research studies.