Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - April 17, 2020, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE A2 A 2 WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, FRIDAY, APRIL 17, 2020 ? WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM VOL 149 NO 157 Winnipeg Free Press est 1872 / Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 2020 Winnipeg Free Press, a division of FP Canadian Newspapers Limited Partnership. Published seven days a week at 1355 Mountain Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba R2X 3B6, PH: 204-697-7000 Publisher / BOB COX Editor / PAUL SAMYN Associate Editor Enterprise / SCOTT GIBBONS Associate Editor Operations and Engagement / STACEY THIDRICKSON Associate Editor Digital News / WENDY SAWATZKY Director Photo and Multimedia / MIKE APORIUS NEWSMEDIA COUNCIL The Winnipeg Free Press is a member of the National Newsmedia Council, which is an in- dependent organization established to determine acceptable journalistic practices and ethical behaviour. If you have concerns about editorial content, please send them to: editorialconcerns@freepress.mb.ca. 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GENERAL INQUIRIES 204-697-7000 The Free Press receives support from the Local Journalism Initiative funded by the Government of Canada CIRCULATION INQUIRIES MISSING OR INCOMPLETE PAPER? Call or email before 10 a.m. weekdays or 11 a.m. Saturday City: 204-697-7001 Outside Winnipeg: 1-800-542-8900 press 1 6:30 a.m. - 4 p.m. Monday-Friday.; 7 a.m. - noon Saturday; Closed Sunday TO SUBSCRIBE: 204-697-7001 Out of Winnipeg: 1-800-542-8900 TEST ? FROM A1 LAB ? FROM A1 BORDER ? FROM A1 PREMIER Brian Pallister took a shot Thursday at the Winnipeg Free Press, as he defended his plan to have some Manitoba civil servants work reduced hours, supplemented by Employment Insurance benefits. "There's a well-established work- share program that. has been used for some time," Pallister told a news con- ference. "I'm being criticized for trying to come up with, according to one news- paper today, some kind of a harebrained scheme or something. If it's that bad an idea, why are private-sector companies like the Winnipeg Free Press using it?" Free Press publisher Bob Cox said, despite what the premier claimed, the newspaper does not have any employ- ees participating in work-share pro- grams supplemented by EI. Staff at the newspaper has instead taken pay cuts ranging from 12 per cent to 20 per cent; in the case of the publisher, the salary reduction is 50 per cent, Cox said. Some travellers who make legitimate efforts to enter the U.S. have been turned away, he noted. He cited a peculiarity of the way traffic is managed by the two coun- tries at entry points: in some cases, Canadians who are denied entry to the U.S. and forced to turn around have then been ordered to quarantine by Canadian Border Services Agency officials. "This is a quirk in the system that should be looked at, since they have not gone past the point of entry into the United States." The agreement is due to expire by Tuesday, and talks to extend it have been underway for several days, said Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, who insisted that keeping the restrictions in place would be "the neighbourly thing to do." Despite those "extremely friendly, extremely neighbourly and extremely effective" discussions, however, Canada won't do anything that would risk putting its citizens in jeopardy, she insisted. "What I can guarantee is that deci- sions about Canada's border are taken by Canadians, full stop," Freeland said. "Our government will only (open the border) when it is appropriate and when it is not a risk to the health and safety of Canadians." Ontario Premier Doug Ford urged Ottawa to "say no right away," and said he wished Canada had closed its doors earlier, although he was quick to insist he wasn't criticizing the federal government. "Until we have this under contain- ment, we need to keep our borders closed," Ford said. "We should have shut down the borders a lot sooner." Trump issued national guidelines Thursday aimed at steering his country's economic recovery, even as congressional and state lawmakers persisted in warning of the dangers of going too fast, too soon. The president has eased away from his earlier insis- tence that the decision would be his alone to make - a power that in fact rests with state governors. Public health officials in the U.S., while they point to signs of improve- ment in the effort to slow the rate of infection, continue to say that main- taining measures already in place - physical distancing, staying home and personal and environmental hygiene - are critical to long-term success. Nearly 30 per cent of the U.S. has reported no new cases in the last week, Trump said. - The Canadian Press Current testing parameters in Mani- toba include people with symptoms who have travelled outside the prov- ince in the past 14 days, close contacts of a confirmed case, health workers, patients admitted to hospital with re- spiratory symptoms, lab workers who have worked with COVID-19 tests, first responders and individuals who live or work in the north, a remote or isolated community, or in a congregate setting, such as a jail. Any person concerned about their exposure to, or risk of having, the coro- navirus should call Health Links to be screened to see if a test is required. - with files from Carol Sanders and Dylan Robertson larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca Premier's jab at paper misses mark The rest get a matching barcode sticker for the paperwork and the sample. As data-entry clerks type the req- uisitions into a database, the labora- tory technologists get a rack of test tubes, which are sorted by priority. Specimens from hospital patients and health-care workers get tested immediately, in individual tubes. Meanwhile, samples from speci- mens taken from the public and returning travellers are combined into a single tube - currently four at a time. If that tube tests positive, the remainder of those four original specimens are tested individually. "It allows us to tell people they're negative faster. It's a little slower on the positive side, but now we know whom we need to focus on," said Van Caeseele. Cadham tests the samples through a mix of semi-manual and automated methods. Lab staff designed the manual method at the start of the year, based on instructions from the National Mi- crobiology Laboratory and on advice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States and the World Health Organization. The first step is called extraction. Chemicals called reagents strip away mucus and external parts of the coronavirus, leaving just the "genetic fingerprint," called RNA. "That kind of peels away the garbage and leaves just the virus behind," he said. "The purer the sam- ple, the less likely you run into the test not working, or invalid results." A device called a real-time ther- mocycler creates a polymerase chain reaction, which is when the genes are doubled about 40 times, creating roughly a trillion copies of the gene. A probe sits near the sample, coated with a reagent that creates trace amounts of light as the specific gene for COVID-19 is detected. This enzymatic reaction is detect- ed by a device called a fluorometre, which measures the slightly yellow- green wavelengths. "Once we (measure) enough of that light, then we say it's positive," said Van Caeseele. Much of that process has been ex- pedited though machines called com- mercial platform kits; Cadham uses two machines that can handle nose swabs and runs about 96 samples at a time, putting the results directly into the lab software. Cadham gets results within 48 hours, and often on the same day. Last month, a reagent short- age capped testing at roughly 200 samples a day, but the lab now has enough chemicals and machines to process as many samples as it gets, Van Caeseele said. Cadham undergoes daily quality- control tests, which include running samples that are already known to be positive and negative, to make sure both the machines and the scientists involved in the manual process give accurate results. About two weeks ago, National Microbiology Laboratory staff certi- fied Cadham's methodology, meaning samples no longer have to be sent around the corner to the federal lab for confirmation. After the testing, workers put the swabs and vials into a device that resembles a washing machine, which renders the material, heating them to the point of killing the virus. "An enormous autoclave cooks the baloney out of it," Van Caeseele said, adding that the material is put in a hazardous-waste landfill. "COVID has put a spotlight on us, and I have to say everybody in this lab has stepped up and done their job above and beyond the expectations that I have had." He has led the lab since 2000, but rarely gets interview requests, which he takes as a sign of things running well. "We're like the silent firefighters of disease." dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Dr. Paul Van Caeseele has been in charge of the Cadham Provincial Laboratory since 2000. He and his staff have been at the forefront of Manitoba's fight against the virus. TORONTO - Cash-strapped zoos and aquariums in Canada are soliciting do- nations from the public to keep their animals fed and cared for during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Toronto Zoo, the Calgary Zoo and the Vancouver Aquarium say they're facing financial strains as they enter a second month of closures. The facilities typically rely on admis- sions and parking fees to pay for food and environment upkeep. "It costs about $1 million a year to feed animals at the Toronto Zoo, and it's not like going to the pet store and picking up a bag of 'chow' or something like that," said Beth Gilhespy, execu- tive director of the Toronto Zoo Wild- life Conservancy. "They need a very specialized diet made up of ingredients that are natural and they would find in the wild." The conservancy, which is the zoo's fundraising partner, has launched a campaign to make up that lost revenue so it can continue feeding and caring for 5,000 animals, Gilhespy said. The conservancy said it will begin reaching out to rally supporters. The Calgary Zoo is facing a crunch, the chief development officer said. Looking after its 1,000 animals costs $550,000 per month, which includes food and vet care, Steven Ross said. The zoo has laid off about 60 per cent of its staff in order to cut costs, but without fundraising, he said, it won't be enough to keep the animals cared for while maintaining conservation efforts. The Vancouver Aquarium, mean- while, has said it could be forced into bankruptcy and permanent closure be- cause of the pandemic. The aquarium has been closed since March 17 but faces monthly costs of $1 million for animal care and habitat maintenance. If it doesn't find funding, aquarium operator Ocean Wise Conservation As- sociation said it will likely be bankrupt by early summer. The not-for-profit aquarium has 70,000 animals and has laid off 60 per cent of its staff while the remainder work reduced hours. - The Canadian Press Zoos raise money to feed animals False-positives explained MANITOBA'S Cadham lab has had some tests come back positive before they were confirmed as nega- tive. Medical director Paul Van Caeseele believes these were caused by two situations. Trace amounts of RNA can show up so weak that tests can't confirm whether a patient contracted COVID-19, possibly because the patient had nearly recovered by the time the test was taken. Earlier on, Van Caeseele said there were a couple of instances in which a sample came up inconclusive. The tube sat next to a very strong sample on the rack, suggesting "a tiny bit of splash-over," which can happen with some viruses. "We know how to investigate those now, and those false-positives don't happen anymore," he said. A few times, samples have shown no genetic material (no DNA or RNA), suggesting the swab didn't go deep enough, at which point the lab asks the testing centre to get another sample from the patient. - Dylan Robertson A_02_Apr-17-20_FP_01.indd A2 2020-04-16 10:56 PM ;