Expanded testing to start this weekend, Ford says

TORONTO—Premier Doug Ford says Ontario will be testing symptomatic and asymptomatic front-line health-care workers starting this weekend, as well as doing a second round of testing in long-term-care homes.

His comments come as Ontario’s COVID-19 testing levels lag well below capacity for a fifth straight day.

Ford also says he’s eyeing a provincial expansion of a mobile spot-testing model one local health unit announced today.

The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit says it will start random spot testing in the community with the help of local paramedics, including drive-thru and trailer-based testing at different locations.

The number of daily tests reported Friday was 11,276 — well below the province’s capacity of over 21,000 — as testing levels dropped sharply once a blitz of nearly all long-term-care residents and staff was completed last weekend.

Ford also says that Ontario will be rolling out an advertising campaign encouraging people to get tested, particularly in areas with higher concentrations of COVID-19 cases.

Dr. Wajid Ahmed, the medical officer of health with the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit, announced a plan to ramp up testing in the community, where there are currently more than 840 cases of the virus.

Ahmed said he is working on a plan to ensure tests can be accessed at local doctors’ offices and will begin random spot testing in the community with the help of local paramedics.

“We will be offering a combination of a drive-thru testing and a trailer-based testing at different locations across Windsor and Essex to make it truly random, and have a true sense of community spread,” he said.

“The plan is to pick a spot in the community where we can find many people outdoors, and offer spot testing after collecting baseline information. You do not have to have any symptoms to get tested in that random testing.”

Ahmed said people being tested will need to have their health card and another form of identification to ensure the health unit can reach out if a person tests positive.