Respiratory and enteric testing supplies
Advisory Alert
February 24, 2023
*Cette information est seulement disponible en anglais.
To: Local Health System Partners
FOR IMMEDIATE ATTENTION
As facilities continue to support infectious disease surveillance through testing, it is critical to maintain an adequate supply of specimen collection kits for enteric and respiratory (including COVID-19) testing. It is best practice to have routine monitoring procedures (e.g., 1st of every month) in place to ensure expiry dates and quantities are checked. This will allow facilities to identify when kits need to be replaced and allow for timely ordering prior to the expiry of specimen collection kits.
If specimens are collected using expired collection kits and submitted to laboratories, the specimens will not be processed by the receiving laboratory. If this occurs, facilities will have to recollect and resubmit specimens.
COVID-19 specimen collection kits can be ordered via the Ontario Digital Health Service Portal (see website for further ordering instructions). Instructions for ordering other types of test kits (i.e. respiratory/enteric test kits) can be found on Public Health Ontario’s website. For questions related to specimen collection kit ordering, please contact Public Health Ontario toll-free at 1.877.604.4567.
For questions related to respiratory specimen collection, please contact the Control of Infectious Diseases program via 705.522.9200, ext. 267 or toll-free at 1.866.522.9200. For questions related to enteric specimen collection, please contact the Environmental Health program via 705.522.9200, ext. 464 or toll-free at 1.866.522.9200.
Sincerely,
Original Signed By
Dr. Penny Sutcliffe
Medical Officer of Health and Chief Executive Officer
NOTE: All Advisory Alerts are found on our website.
This item was last modified on March 20, 2023