As of March 17 10:45 AM York Region says: “ There is no evidence of community spread within York Region. The risk of acquiring COVID-19 in York Region remains low.” Here is the YR page.
Beginning Monday, March 16, all three York Region hospitals (Mackenzie Health, Markham-Stouffville Hospital and Southlake Regional Health Centre) will have opened a COVID-19 assessment centre. It will be managed by hospital staff and located in close proximity to their emergency departments in the event a patient requires urgent care.
Southlake Regional Health Centre has advised they have begun with ‘drive-through’ testing. This option is dependent on space feasibility. York Region Paramedic Services assists Public Health with in-home testing of cases for clearance. It is a laborious process involving three paramedics but restricted to select situations as resources are scarce.
At this time, home testing is not available.
York Region Public Health will provide COVID-19 test results to patients of the assessment centres.
If a resident thinks they have COVID-19 symptoms, they are encouraged to use this self-assessment to help determine if they need to seek further care. Not all people who attend a COVID-19 assessment centre will be tested for COVID-19.
Thanks for this info, Debbie. It seems to me that a drive-through test centre is the way to go. No sense crowding people together who think that they might have COVID-19. Then for sure those that do spread it to those that don’t.
Perhaps some of our drive-throughs at, say, Tim Horton’s, could be converted to an assessment centre, away from hospitals.