Windsor Regional Hospital (WRH) is setting up some COVID-19 pop-up testing centres in the city.
Responding to demand for tests ahead of September school openings and workers returning from summer vacation, there will be a two-day drive-thru testing blitz next week at the St Clair College Sportsplex, followed by further testing inside the facility in September.
Speaking on AM800's The Morning Drive, hospital President and CEO David Musyj says the pop-up sites will not impact the permanent testing centres at the hospitals Ouellette Campus and Erie Shores in Leamington.
"Monday and Tuesday, August 24 and 25, you can go to St Clair College Sportsplex and there will be a drive-thru subject to weather — if the weather is bad we'll go inside — from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.. So that's this upcoming Monday and Tuesday," he says.
As AM800 News told you in July, WRH was approved to open a second COVID-19 Assessment Centre at the met campus. Musyj says that process has been delayed by the start of school.
"There is a big demand by schools right now for these modular/portable trailers," he says. "We agreed we would wait until the schools are set because we have a backup plan and we'll be getting them near the end of September."
Musyj says the additional testing centres are a proactive measure because officials predict that testing numbers will go up.
"Things like St Clair College as well as the university, even though it will be mostly off-site, also elementary and high schools," he adds. "Plants are opening back up, people going back to work in the fall and as that happens, we are going to see more positives. Simultaneous to that, influenza season will be starting."
The drive-thru testing will take place on Monday, August 24 and Tuesday, August 25 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. with testing inside the Sportsplex starting Thursday, Sept. 3 and Friday, Sept. 4 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m..
Starting Tuesday, Sept. 8, the Sportsplex assessment centre will be open the same hours as the Ouellette
Campus location - daily, from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays and from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays, Sundays and statutory holidays.
More than 25,000 individuals have been swabbed for COVID-19 since the assessment centre at Ouellette Campus opened on March 16.
Erie Shores Healthcare in Leamington also has an assessment centre open Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday-Sunday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.