N.B. company's quick-results COVID-19 test now in use, but not in New Brunswick

A Fredericton-based company says it hasaccurate diagnostic tests that provide quick results and are effective on both the original COVID-19 virus strain and all four known variants but they aren't being used here in New Brunswick.

LuminUltrahas qPCR(quantitatitve polymerase chain reaction) testkits approvedby Health Canada thatprovideresults within two hours instead of up to two days, said company spokesperson Jessica Stutt.

By shortening that window, the LuminUltra testreducesthe time people have to waitin self-isolation and eliminatesthe need for a followup confirmatory test, which may be requiredafter a screening-onlyrapid test, Stutt said.

Stutt said the GeneCountCOVID-19 RT-qPCR Assay Kits are already in use in some other provinces.

However, they are not currently in use in New Brunswick.

Rotational workers in the province have called on the provincial governmentto offer rapid COVID-19 teststo reduce the time they have to spend self-isolating when they return home.

Asked at Tuesday's COVID-19 update why the province isn't using the made-in-New Brunswick tests, Dr. Jennifer Russell, the chief medical officer of health, said the preferred "way ahead right now" is to rely on "the gold standard PCR" tests and having all travellersself-isolate for 14 days. '

LuminUltra's test is aPCR test, and Russell didn't get into detail about why she prefers the PCR testthat takes longer to get results.

"That is the safest approach, dealing with variants, trying to get our most vulnerable population vaccinated we have a lot of factors to consider," Russell said. "It is challenging, so that is our way ahead for the time being.

"But it is an evolving situation and things could definitely change."

The province is also not relying heavily on therapid COVID-19 tests it received from the federal government.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been urging the provinces to use the 20 million rapid tests sent out by Ottawa, and hediscussed testingduringhis call with the premiers last week.Rapid test results take only about 15 minutes.

New Brunswick has used only4.15 per cent of the284,064 rapid COVID-19 tests it received from the federal government.

Russellhasrepeatedly said the rapid tests are useful for screening, but they're not diagnostic.

"They are meant to be used for symptomatic people within five to seven days of the onset of their symptoms," she said at a COVID-19 update last week.

In addition, Russell said, if someone tests positive with a rapid antigen test, they require a followup PCR test to confirm.

But the results typically take up to two days.

Company has federal contract to provide testing chemicals

Talks with the federal government and various provincial governments, including New Brunswick,continue, Stutt said.

"We've been working closely with [the Public Health Agency of Canada] since March in providing the reagent components forthe testing," said Stutt, referring to the company's year-long contract with the federal government to provideenough chemicals for 500,000 tests per week, "and in looking at our other options."

"So certainly since receiving [Health Canada] authorization, which is of course the big hurdle, we have been in conversation with PHACabout our additional options," she said.

We have the ability to fulfillarge-scale contracts beginning immediately.- Jessica Stutt, LuminUltra spokesperson

CBC News has asked Health Canada for comment.

LuminUltra has also been in discussions with other potential users, such as hospital networks, said Stutt.

The New Brunswick Department of Health saidit worked with LuminUltraduring the first wave of the pandemic with respect to testing swabs and reagents.

The department "continues to discuss options and supports the development of public/private opportunities to expand testing capacity," spokesperson Bruce Macfarlane said in an emailed statement.

He declined further comment.

100 per cent sensitivity

LuminUltra received Health Canada authorization to sell and distribute its COVID-19 test kits more than two months ago. The health agency's website lists the test's sensitivity as 100 per cent.

"This new product line gives governments and businesses across Canada the tools they need to deliver a high volume of the most accurate COVID-19 test results possible in under two hours," LuminUltrachairand CEO Pat Whalen said ina news release at the time.

"We are now able to expand our efforts in the fight against COVID-19 by providing accurate and fast testing solutions for both remote locations and high-capacity mobile labs."

LuminUltra offers portable manual devices, about the size of a toaster, thatcan be used where needed to assess up to 16 nasal swabs, as well as automated devices that can be used in a lab or mobile setting to process up to 96 samples per run.

Rather than collecting samples and shipping them to a centralized laboratory to be processed, LuminUltra's kits bring the testing capacity to "point of need," said Stutt.

"You could do the swab and have the machine to do the testing on right there," she said.

Demand for testing expected to rise with variants

The demand for COVID-19 testing is expected to increase as the more infectious variants first reported in the U.K., South Africa and Brazil take hold.

All three have been detected in Canada. New Brunswick has four confirmed cases of the variant first reported in the U.K. one in the Moncton region, Zone 1, two in the Saint John region, Zone 2, and one in the Miramichi region, Zone 7.

The variants are up to 80 per cent more contagious and are expected to spread exponentially, New Brunswick infectious disease specialist and pandemic task force member Dr. Gordon Dow has said.

He predicts the variantswillreplace the strain of coronavirus that has caused most infections in Canada within three months, based on the experience of multiple jurisdictions around the world.

Capacity to produce tens of millions of tests per month

LuminUltra, which has about 140 full-time employees, is currently producing millions of tests per month and has the capacity to increase this to "tens of millions," according to Stutt.

"We have the ability to fulfil large-scale contracts beginning immediately," she said.

Stuttdeclined to discuss cost, saying only that LuminUltra is"definitely competitive with anything else in the qPCR market."

The company's devicescan also test other samples for the presence of the coronavirus,including surfaces, air and wastewater.

In addition, the same instruments canbe used to target common water- and food-borne pathogens, such as legionella, coliforms, algae, listeria and salmonella

LuminUltra has been inbusiness forabout 25years, with operations in six countries and sales in more than80 countries.