Eastern Ontario pharmacies to offer COVID-19 testing to symptomatic customers
Hundreds of pharmacies across Ontario will now be able to offer COVID-19 testing to people showing symptoms of the virus.
Until this point, pharmacies could only test people who were asymptomatic. The Ontario Pharmacists Association says the change will allow easier access to testing for residents and is an important tool in combatting the pandemic.
"So we have up to 1,300 that have expressed interest, and those pharmacies will be on-boarded over the next couple of weeks," says the association's CEO Justin Bates.
One of those pharmacies getting on board with the change, and the only pharmacy participating thus far in Carleton Place, is Seaway Valley Pharmacy. Owner and pharmacist Ebram Ghobrial says pharmacies are the easiest point of care for many in their communities.
"With the winter coming I would say some people will have some symptoms and they are not sure if it is the flu or COVID," says Ghobrial. "So in order for them to be sure, they would like to perform such a test."
Following the announcement, there were questions about the safety of others in the pharmacies when symptomatic patients enter the building for COVID-19 testing. To combat this, Bates says all symptomatic tests must be done by appointment booked ahead of time.
"So no co-mingling going in, shopping in other aisles, which will reduce or mitigate the risk of other patrons who are shopping from getting the virus," Bates tells CTV News.
Another option available to pharmacists is performing the tests outdoors. Bates says the test must be performed on the pharmacy property, meaning it could be done outside the front door, in a parking lot, or even at a vehicle window.
"If I notice that they have symptoms and it's more than severe," explains Ghobrial. "What I can do is ask them to stay in their car out here in the parking lot and I can go out there to take the specimen."
To find a pharmacy near you that will conduct a symptomatic COVID test, visit the province's website.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Parents of infant who died in wrong-way crash on Ontario's Hwy. 401 were in same vehicle
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
Three Quebec men from same family father hundreds of children
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
Jurors in Trump hush money trial hear recording of pivotal call on plan to buy affair story
Jurors in the hush money trial of Donald Trump heard a recording Thursday of him discussing with his then-lawyer and personal fixer a plan to purchase the silence of a Playboy model who has said she had an affair with the former president.
B.C. mayor stripped of budget, barred from committees over Indigenous residential schools book
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Captain sentenced to 4 years for criminal negligence in fiery deaths of 34 aboard scuba boat
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a scuba dive boat captain to four years in custody and three years supervised release for criminal negligence after 34 people died in a fire aboard the vessel.
New scam targets Canada Carbon Rebate recipients
Fake text message and email campaigns trying to get money and information out of unsuspecting Canadian taxpayers have started circulating, just months after the federal government rebranded the carbon tax rebate the Canada Carbon Rebate.
Southern Alberta store broken into by burly black bear
Staff at a small southern Alberta office supply store were shocked to find someone had broken into the business last week, but they were even more confused when they discovered the culprit was a bear.
President Joe Biden calls Japan and India 'xenophobic' nations that do not welcome immigrants
President Joe Biden has called Japan and India “xenophobic” countries that do not welcome immigrants, lumping the two with adversaries China and Russia as he tried to explain their economic circumstances and contrasted the four with the U.S. on immigration.
Universities grapple with the complicated politics of campus encampments
Montreal police are facing pressure to move in and dismantle a pro-Palestinian encampment on McGill University campus on Thursday, as a growing number of universities across this country grapple with the tough decision of how to handle the protests.