Canadian troops serving in long-term care facilities are not being uniformly tested for the novel coronavirus — an omission that alarms a leading health and safety policy expert.
Canadian troops serving in long-term care facilities are not being uniformly tested for the novel coronavirus — an omission that alarms a leading health and safety policy expert.
In response to questions from CBC News, the Department of National Defence (DND) said that soldiers, sailors and aircrew throughout the Canadian Forces are tested if they show symptoms of the virus.
Those personnel on deployment providing support to seniors homes in Quebec and Ontario are administered the test — but only in certain circumstances.
“To date, primarily symptomatic [Canadian Armed Forces] personnel are being tested for COVID-19, including [Operation] LASER deployed personnel,” said Dan Le Bouthillier, DND head of media relations, in an email.
“CAF personnel deployed on Op LASER and assessed to be in close contact with active COVID-19 cases in [Long-Term Care Facilities] may be proactively tested based on recommendations of the local public health authority.”
A testing patchwork
Some of the long-term care homes where troops are deployed “are also mass testing all personnel working in these facilities and therefore some of our asymptomatic CAF members are subject to these mass testing activities,” said Le Bouthillier.
It all amounts to a patchwork policy that fails to recognize the extraordinary uncertainty surrounding the transmission of COVID-19, Mario Possamai, a former senior adviser to the Ontario government’s SARS Commission, told CBC News.
While he acknowledged the military is following the established health protocol, he argued that the military’s approach ignores