As more and more people are coming for tests, a local COVID-19 assessment centre has added hours.
The centre at Windsor Regional Hospital's Ouellette Campus will expand weekday hours to 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. to handle the increased demand for tests. Weekend hours will remain the same, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The facility, which is located next to the hospital's emergency department off Goyeau Avenue, has seen high demand for testing since the province allowed for asymptomatic patients to be tested. On Tuesday, 237 people lined up to get a test, a record. The day before, 163 visited, still shattering the previous single-day record of 103 patients.
As before at the Windsor centre, a referral is not needed from a primary care physician, the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit, or Telehealth Ontario to get a test.
Windsor Regional Hospital President and CEO David Musyj told BlackburnNewsWindsor.com on Tuesday that efforts have been made to make the wait more comfortable for patients. Additional tents have been set up outdoors to protect people from the heat and humidity, with water being handed out. Parking is free for those getting an assessment.
The Windsor centre has been open since March 16 and has swabbed 4,362 people out of 5,010 individuals, according to WRH. This is a testing rate of more than 87 per cent. After initially being based on a specific set of guidelines, the criteria for testing has expanded over the past few weeks and since April 1st, the vast majority of those who arrived for an assessment has received a swab test. The previous average number of tests per day was 65 patients.
Meanwhile, the COVID-19 Assessment Centre at Erie Shores Healthcare in Leamington is open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. Spokesman Arms Bumanlag told Blackburn News on Tuesday that about a hundred people were tested at that facility the day before. The previous record there for one day was 60 patients.