Sharing important results from Easter weekend poll of random sample of Ontario households (n=5,045) by @MainStResearch @Forumpolling

@BogochIsaac @DFisman @DrToddLee @jkwan_md 1/8

Bottom line: up to 19% of Ontario households have someone experiencing symptoms of possible COVID-19. Yet only 5% of these have been tested. There is considerable room to expand COVID-19 testing of community-dwelling Ontarians. 2/8

Because 50-75% of COVID-19 cases are thought to be asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic, it was important to be ++ inclusive in defining "symptoms". A symptom was any of: fever, cough, shortness of breath, sore throat, headache, diarrhea, loss or taste/smell. 3/8

Note symptom definitions trade-off sensitivity and specificity- and also note the question asked for "new" symptoms "in the past week". Most common symptom was headache (10%) which certainly isn't specific to COVID-19, but is a very common COVID-19 symptom. 4/8

Using a more narrow definition of any of fever/cough/shortness of breath (until recently, the testing criteria in much of Ontario) 8% of households reported someone with these symptoms new in the past week. Yet only 10% of these same households reported COVID-19 testing. 5/8

Half of households reporting symptoms also reported that they had at least one member with an exacerbating condition (diabetes, asthma, other resp, cardiac, mobility or other). 6/8

In a household with 3+ people (61% of households with symptoms) and members with exacerbating conditions (48%), access to testing is important. If positive, it can motivate adherence to self-isolation within the home, permit contact tracing. 7/8

The overall test rate was 2%, and the overall positive result rate was 0.4% of households. Considering that the average Ontario household has about 3 residents, this is consistent with PH-reported numbers for Ontario. Suggests poll was a representative sample. 8/8