TESTING GOES INDOORS
As winter draws near, one of Ottawa's COVID-19 assessment centres has gone from the parking lot at the baseball stadium to the parking garage at the National Arts Centre. It opens to the public on Thursday.
Ottawa's downtown core is welcoming two new COVID-19 testing centres as winter approaches, with a drive-thru facility to open Thursday in the parking garage of the National Arts Centre.
Another testing facility is slated to open next week at the McNabb Community Centre on Percy Street.
Ottawa Public Health is partnering with the NAC to open the drive-thru centre. It will replace the outdoor Coventry Road location, near the baseball stadium, which closed earlier this week because of poor weather conditions, including declining temperatures.
“You can imagine the last thing you'd want to do is have a nurse or health-care worker shivering and shaking while they try to do a swab in your nose,” Mayor Jim Watson said Wednesday during a media conference inside the NAC's parking garage.
The NAC building has been closed to the public since the start of the pandemic. CEO Christopher Deacon said its garage was an optimal location for drive-thru testing during the winter season.
“It's very central. We have a large capacity and we can handle the load of visitors expected,” he said.
The facility has been equipped with more ventilation and carbon monoxide detectors to increase safety for visitors and health-care workers.
Like all COVID-19 testing centres across Ottawa, an appointment is required before testing. For those who can't schedule appointments remotely, either online or by phone, the McNabb Community Centre will offer in-person bookings.
The launch of the new centres will bolster testing infrastructure in the city's core. All three community health centres near downtown — the Sandy Hill Community Health Centre, Somerset West Community Health Centre and Centretown Community Health — announced testing ability earlier this month.
The NAC's drive-thru centre will operate from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., seven days a week. The McNabb Community Centre will open the following week during the same hours from Monday to Friday.