More ‘pop-up’ COVID-19 test centres coming to Scarborough

One-time facilities won’t turn anyone away, hospital says

Scarborough neighbourhoods will see three more “pop-up” testing centres for COVID-19 where no one who wants a test will be turned away.

Testing will be offered at Lester B. Pearson Collegiate, 150 Tapscott Rd., this Thursday; at Wilfrid Laurier Collegiate, 145 Guildwood Pkwy., on Friday; and at the Scarborough Centre for Alternative Studies, 720 Midland Ave., on Monday.

Each pop-up will run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and appointments aren’t needed. People with no symptoms of COVID-19 can still go.

The hospital says the one-day events are part of Ontario’s new COVID-19 strategy to make testing accessible and to identify new cases while monitoring the disease’s spread. Neither SHN nor Toronto Public Health nor Ontario’s Health Ministry, however, have explained just why popup testing in Toronto is starting in Scarborough, or how the five sites were chosen.

TPH last week posted a curated map of COVID-19 cases by neighbourhood, which it has since refined to separate “sporadic” cases from cases associated with outbreaks.

Tuesday’s map, for example, shows Guildwood — where Wilfrid Laurier is — has 968 cases per 100,000 residents, which reflects outbreaks such as at the Extendicare Guildwood nursing home.

With outbreak cases removed, Guildwood has a rate of 141.2 per 100,000.

In contrast, nearby Scarborough Village has a sporadic COVID rate of 400.6, and Kennedy Park, an area to the west, has 385.4.

Each pop-up will run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Appointments aren’t needed

The first one-day centre SHN ran, last Friday at Malvern’s Islamic Institute of Toronto, tested about 100 people, about half the daily average at the hospital’s COVID-19 assessment centres, which are at the Birchmount and Centenary sites.

The second pop-up, Tuesday, at Global Kingdom Ministries, a Woburn-area church at1250 Markham Rd., seemed to be busier, said SHN spokesperson Lisa Cipriano.

Another pop-up, which was supposed to happen Monday at Westminster Presbyterian Church on Birchmount Road, was cancelled.

People who think they have COVID-19 can also call Telehealth Ontario for advice at 1-866-797-0000, or use the provincial government’s self-assessment tool online.