If you’re wondering if you should call to get tested for COVID- 19, the GNWT has a way for you to decide. They recently released an online self-assessment tool for COVID-19 for residents that has been completed nearly 2500 times after launching just days ago.
The tool will help assess any symptoms, travel history, and other variables to help you know what you should do to protect yourself and your community. You can complete it for yourself, or you can complete it for someone else. The tool collects no personal information.
Based on the outcome, the assessment tool will give residents information on what they should do next. The tool will let you know if you should be contacting a local health care centre by phone to arrange testing, or if symptoms are severe enough that you should call for emergency help.
The GNWT notes that the objectives of providing this tool are two-fold:
- Give residents peace of mind and clear direction based on their situation, and
- Reduce strain on call-in operations and frontline health workers to better serve people across the Northwest Territories.
All residents who can use this tool, or can get help using it, are urged to use the self-assessment tool to help us reach these objectives. Printed versions of the self-assessment are being distributed to health care centres.
The GNWT adds that anyone using a self-assessment tool should be aware of what assessment tool they are using. There are many online self-assessment tools available from the federal government and other provinces which do not reflect the NWT’ aggressive testing strategy.
To get the appropriate information and guidance within the NWT, residents are encouraged to only use the NWT’s online-self assessment tool.
