Testing for travellers resumes locally

COVID-19 swabbing for people who need a negative test result to travel internationally continues at local hospitals, after the province reversed its decision to halt the service.

Last week, Ontario Health directed Windsor Regional Hospital and Erie Shores Healthcare to stop offering tests for international travellers. Those individuals were instead expected to pay for tests from other service providers.

That change was supposed to take effect on Friday, but on the same day, the province announced it would allow testing for travellers until further notice due to a lack of private testing centres in the west region of Ontario.

COVID-19 testing is by appointment only.

Appointments can be booked online through the Windsor Regional Hospital and Erie Shores Healthcare websites.

Testing also is available, by appointment only, for First Nations, Metis and Inuit people and their families at the Southwest Ontario Aboriginal Health Access Centre in Windsor. To book an appointment there, call 519-916-1755.

Those without symptoms of COVID-19 and who meet specific criteria can schedule an appointment to be tested at select Shoppers Drug Mart locations.

Those eligible for testing at Shoppers Drug Mart include residents or workers in long-term care homes, visitors to long-term care homes, residents or workers in homeless shelters, international students who have passed their 14day quarantine period, farm workers, self-identified Indigenous people, and residents or workers in other congregate living settings and institutions.