The first day testing for COVID-19 for anyone who wants it was hectic at both assessment centres in Windsor-Essex.
At Erie Shore Healthcare in Leamington, Communications Manager Arms Boumanlag told BlackburnNews.com staff swabbed approximately 100 people for the virus.
"And that's from all communities, Leamington, Kingsville, the migrant workers, across the board," said Boumanlag.
He said the previous record was 60 in one day.
Staff at the assessment centre at Windsor Regional Hospital's Ouellette Campus broke a record too. A total of 163 people were tested.
CEO David Musyj said the assessment centre had averaged 65 patients daily since mid-March, and the previous record was 103.
The more people who get tested, the better idea public health officials will learn of how widespread the virus is in the community, he said.
"Unless you swab people unless you test people, you don't know what's in your community, so we have to do that," Musyj continued.
The CDC estimates 35 per cent of those with the virus are asymptomatic and could be spreading it inadvertently.
"They may be lucky. They may be fine, but the individuals they spread it to may not be so lucky," Musyj said.
Meanwhile, the staff at Windsor Regional Hospital are being tested too. The hospital is one of 12 across the province, asking employees to submit to a test voluntarily.
"Each floor will be asked to swab their own staff on that particular floor through the two campuses -- and also we have two internal clinics for those staff that can't get to a particular floor," Musyj explained.
Testing staff started Tuesday morning after Musyj received an email from the province on Saturday. Like the change in rules for testing in the community, he said the hospital has had to work fast to implement the new procedures.
"The one thing we've learned during the pandemic is the time of an idea, time of plan, and time of implementation is very short," said Musyj. "The team was able to pull it together literally within hours."
So far, the uptake in testing from staff has been high.
Musyj hopes to have all 4,000 employees tested in two or three days.