Local Chamber of Commerce providing rapid COVID screening

REGIONAL —– The Leamington District Chamber of Commerce (LDCC) is among three local Chambers to partner in a COVID-19 Rapid Screening initiative.

Beginning tomorrow (May 13), the LDCC is set up at the Leamington Half Century Centre, giving out test kits and doing training for businesses who pre-register. The training takes approximately 10 minutes. Signs will be posted to direct you to the proper entrance. The pickup site is open 10-2 Monday through Friday and you must pre-register. No walk-ins will be taken.

The rapid screening is available — free of charge — to businesses of 150 employees or less through the LDCC and the Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers (OGVG).

The OGVG will handle the agricultural businesses at their office, while the LDCC will handle all other businesses with less than 150 employees.

Businesses with more than 150 employees are asked to visit the Ontario government portal, linked on the LDCC site below.

“This will be a great tool and should help get our numbers under control,” said Wendy Parsons, General Manager of the LDCC.

About one third of positive cases in Ontario are asymptomatic individuals. The screening is used for those employees who are not experiencing symptoms. If employees are experiencing any symptoms, they should be self-isolating and arranging a PCR test at a local health facility.

Aaron Coristine from the Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers meets with Wendy Parsons, General Manager of the Leamington District Chamber of Commerce on Monday at the Leamington Half Century Centre. The two are preparing for the rollout of the Rapid COVID-19 Screening Initiative, which starts Thursday.

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All businesses (including non-chamber members) with 150 employees or less are welcome to participate in this program.

The goal of the program is to identify asymptomatic cases of COVID-19 in the workplace that might otherwise be missed, helping to curb the spread in the workplace, at home and around the community. The initiative successfully piloted in the Waterloo region recently.

“Rapid testing is one of the key ways to keep workplaces as safe as possible during the pandemic as we wait for vaccinations to roll out,” said Rocco Rossi, President and CEO of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce.

If you are interested in registering your business, log into WEStaySafe.ca beginning Wednesday, May 12, to order your two-week supply of rapid tests. You can also use the local site at https://leamingtonchamber.com/ covid-19-rapid-screening-program/.

A designate from each business, responsible for supervising the self-screening collection onsite, will be required to attend the site for the initial pick-up where they will receive video training to properly supervise the screening process and safely dispose of the used kits.

Each business will be required to electronically submit their screening results after each occasion and will be recommended to screen staff twice weekly.

The accumulated data will be reported to the Ministry of Health bi-monthly.

If a test results in a preliminary positive for COVID-19, the employee will be required to leave the workplace, arrange for a PCR Test within 24 hours at an approvedCOVID-19 assessment site, and self-isolate until a confirmatory test result is received.