Assure Covid Travel Clinics, in an arrangement with the Detroit Windsor Tunnel, is looking to address cross-border testing requirement issues by offering access to Health Canada-approved PCR tests on site on the U.S. side.
Until now, Canadian and U.S. travelers have had to find a pharmacy or lab in the U.S. that could provide a PCR test result within 72 hours of a traveler’s trip into Canada.
Speaking on AM800's The Morning Drive, CEO Dr. Phillip Olla says their aim is to help cross-border leisure and business travelers acquire PCR tests in a stress free way.
"What you have access to now is a portable PCR test that you can actually take with you on your holidays and you can do the test from the convenience of your hotel room, the airport, or your car and it takes 30 minutes to get the results back."
Dr. Olla says the main problem we have now is that it's very challenging to find somewhere that's going to give test results back within 72 hours, which is what's mandated by the federal government.
"So the big game changer here is having a portable PCR test, we're calling it the lab in a bag, that allows you the flexibility of doing it whenever you want, however you want and wherever you want to use it," he said.
Cross-border travelers will be able to order their test kits online starting this week, and can stop to pick up them up at an operations office, in front of the shop on the Detroit end of the tunnel.
The test is conducted via a telehealth visit with one of Assure Covid Travel Clinic’s specialists, who will supervise the sample collection and the processing of the test at the traveler’s location with no lab required.
Dr. Olla says the test is actually an electronic little box, with lights that say ready done and whether it's negative or positive.
"And what you do is complete our form, you take a picture of your results with your I.D. and the QR code of the box," he explained. "Then that information comes to us for us to review to make sure it is what we think it is and that you have the right results, and then we send you the appropriate certificate.")
Test kits must be booked online for $195 apiece, and kits can also be picked up in Windsor at the Assure Covid Travel Clinic office at 880 N. Service Road Suite 105.
- with files from AM800's the Morning Drive and CTV Windsor