The chief of staff at Windsor Regional Hospital is scared for the migrant worker population in Essex County during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Speaking on AM800's the Morning Drive, Dr. Wassim Saad points out the infection rate among migrant workers is one of the highest in the area.
"Preliminary results are showing there are about a 13 per cent positive rate, to me that's scary. You have such a high percentage rate of the people who were tested, you would want to know how many more people are positive," says Dr. Wassim Saad.
Only 750 workers were swabbed over nine days, when the goal was to test thousands of them, therefore, the centre will close on Thursday.
Dr. Saad points out at the hospital, 1,600 workers were tested and only 0.2 per cent came back positive.
With the drive-thru test sites, 4,900 people were tested and only 9 people came back positive, which is far less than one percent.
He says over two weeks, the centre could have tested everyone in the local agri-food industry.
"Now that we know what the positive rate is, I don't see how Windsor-Essex is going to move on to the next phase when we don't have a good grasp of what is happening in the agri-food industry right now," says Dr. Saad.
He says this population needs to be tested.
“Had that happened at the hospital and we tested 1,600 people and 10 or 15 per cent were positive, I can tell you, every single person that worked in the hospital would end up being tested, it would be mandated. So why aren't we getting pressure federally, provincially, whomever can make this decision, to test is beyond me."
Dr. Saad says he is “worried and incredibly disappointed” with the turnout at the Leamington Assessment Centre because it was designed to identify and limit the spread of COVID-19 among the agri-food population.
Two workers in Windsor-Essex, a 24-year-old and a 31-year-old, have died from the virus.