The widely-reported belief that Ontario testing for COVID-19 has fallen far behind the efficiency of other provinces remained a cloudy puzzle to most people Thursday as the head of Ontario’s public health agency temporarily stepped away from his job. The move by Dr. Peter Donnelly, the president and chief executive of Public Health Ontario, came a day after the premier called the province’s low rate of COVID-19 testing “unacceptable.” Colleen Geiger, who currently serves as the agency’s chief of strategy, stakeholder relations, information and knowledge will take over as acting president and CEO, while the rest of the senior leadership team remains in place.
Why such a staggering shortfall?
So far, the nature of just where the mechanics of testing are falling short is unexplained. Thursday the Premier was careful to remain vague. He talked of “the system.” The province is said to have the lowest rate of testing of all provinces per capita. It is also said to have the capacity to conduct more than 13,000 tests per day but is, in fact, completing merely 4,000. It’s a seemingly staggering shortfall. Mr. Ford said his “patience has run thin” and there can be “no more excuses” for the province’s low testing numbers. “We could sit here and I could give you a list all day long of what we hear from our team,” he said. “But we have to move forward and learn from our mistakes in the past.”
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