{"id":89280,"date":"2021-12-22T13:17:07","date_gmt":"2021-12-22T18:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/?p=89280"},"modified":"2021-12-22T14:34:55","modified_gmt":"2021-12-22T19:34:55","slug":"quebecs-testing-sites-overwhelmed-as-christmas-approaches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/canada\/quebecs-testing-sites-overwhelmed-as-christmas-approaches\/","title":{"rendered":"Quebec’s testing sites overwhelmed as Christmas approaches"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Quebec's
People wait in line to receive a COVID-19 test in Montreal on Tuesday. Testing centres across Quebec have reached full capacity as pharmacies continue to experience delays receiving rapid testing kits from the province. (Graham Hughes\/The Canadian Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

COVID-19 testing clinics across Quebec\u00a0are stretched to the limit and Quebecers\u00a0who are headed there\u00a0en masse face long waits for tests \u2014 and results.<\/strong><\/p>\n

At Montreal’s H\u00f4tel-Dieu, hundreds of people were waiting in line Tuesday morning. Many of them, including Jonathan Nault, were experiencing symptoms but were unable to get a free rapid-test kit\u00a0at their local pharmacy.<\/p>\n

<\/section>\n

Nault said it took about 30 minutes to get through the line\u00a0and speak to staff, who gave him\u00a0the option of taking a\u00a0PCR test on site or heading home with a rapid testing kit.<\/p>\n

“We decided [to take the test] at home,”\u00a0said Nault. “We’ve got to take it once today, another one tomorrow and if we’re positive we’ve got\u00a0to wait for ten days and then take the official test.”<\/p>\n

At 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Montreal’s West Island health authority\u00a0sent out a tweet<\/a>\u00a0saying\u00a0its drop-in testing sites in Kirkland and in Verdun had reached capacity for the day.<\/p>\n

One of the few testing centres on the island that didn’t hit full capacity today was the Viau drive-thru site that closes at 5:30 p.m. and can handle about 300 daily tests.<\/p>\n

Don’t get tested unless you have symptoms<\/h2>\n

Public health authorities\u00a0are asking Quebecers to fill out the\u00a0COVID-19 symptom self-assessment form\u00a0online, try to take a rapid test first and only go to a testing centre if they’re showing symptoms.<\/p>\n

But the distribution of free testing kits through pharmacies hasn’t kept up with demand.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

The province says people who are travelling or heading to holiday gatherings\u00a0should avoid public testing clinics and either pay for a test at\u00a0a private laboratory or pick up\u00a0a rapid testing kit where they’re available.<\/p>\n

Some Montreal testing centres offer the option of booking an appointment ahead of time\u00a0but wait times are currently anywhere between one\u00a0and five\u00a0days.<\/p>\n

Laval takes a different approach<\/h2>\n

North of Montreal, Laval’s director of public health,\u00a0Dr. Jean-Pierre Tr\u00e9panier, says\u00a0his testing centres are taking saliva samples instead of\u00a0handing out rapid tests.<\/p>\n

“And so there are no waiting lines, but the fact is that the waiting line is at the lab,” he said, adding that lab is currently at maximum capacity.<\/p>\n

Laval public health says it’s been taking\u00a0roughly 3,000 tests per day since cases spiked and it reported 234 new cases Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Tr\u00e9panier says for those who give a saliva sample, it might\u00a0take three to four days to get their results.<\/p>\n

“We have to keep the PCR tests for people that really need them,” he said.<\/p>\n

If you’re able to get a rapid test and you\u00a0test positive, he suggests taking a second one 24 hours\u00a0later before going to a testing site.<\/p>\n

Tr\u00e9panier says another way to ease some of the strain on screening centres\u00a0is to send only one person from a group of people who are sick.<\/p>\n

If several people within a single family or close circle of contacts all have similar symptoms, and one tests positive, Tr\u00e9panier says it’s not necessary for all of them to get a lab test.<\/p>\n

\"Montreal-Milenio
People line up in cars at a drive-thru screening centre near Montreal’s Olympic Stadium. The Viau testing site closes at 5:30 p.m. and can only screen about 300 people per day but was one of the only places not to hit capacity on Tuesday. (Graham Hughes\/The Canadian Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tough to get tested in the Quebec City region<\/h2>\n

Quebec City’s only drop-in testing centre on Dalhousie Street\u00a0in the Old Port, hit full capacity at 7:20 a.m. Tuesday, handing out slips for people to come back later in the day.<\/p>\n

Other sites throughout the region offer testing by appointment only and the earliest\u00a0time slots available were two days from now, on\u00a0Dec. 24, in Quebec City, in L\u00e9vis,\u00a0on Quebec City’s south shore\u00a0and in Saint-Georges, about an\u00a0hour’s drive east.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Chaudi\u00e8re-Appalaches health authority told Radio-Canada that all of Tuesday’s\u00a0drop-in appointments in L\u00e9vis were spoken for within an hour and all of the rapid tests and gargle tests they had on site were given out today as well.<\/p>\n

For the other two testing sites in the area, one in Charny, next to L\u00e9vis and one in Thetford Mines, 90 kilometres south, testing appointments weren’t available for another five days.<\/p>\n

\"Quebec
Quebec City’s only drop-in testing centre for COVID-19, located on Dalhousie Street in the Old Port neighbourhood, reached its capacity at 7:20 a.m. on Tuesday. (Hadi Hassin\/Radio-Canada)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Eastern Townships asks public\u00a0to help ease pressure on testing sites<\/h2>\n

Dr. Alain Poirier, the Eastern Townships director of public health says the six testing centres in his\u00a0region have also reached full capacity.<\/p>\n

“Our labs are lagging with the analysis of all the demand,” he said. “What we’re asking is to use [rapid] tests if you’re symptomatic … If you’re positive you can try to take an appointment in a testing centre.”<\/p>\n

“But since it’s difficult [to get a test] anyway, you have to isolate yourself at home and advise your close contacts that they should also isolate,” Poirier said.<\/p>\n

The Townships started distributing rapid tests in daycares and schools two weeks ago and handed them out to the general public in Granby and Sherbrooke last weekend.<\/p>\n

But Poirier says pharmacies there\u00a0are also still waiting for shipments of\u00a0rapid tests.<\/p>\n

He says\u00a0people who are symptomatic and haven’t been able to get ahold of testing kits should ask their friends and family members with\u00a0children in school or daycare if they have any to spare.<\/p>\n

Like health authorities in the\u00a0rest of the province, Poirier says people need to use testing sites in the Eastern Townships\u00a0judiciously for the next few days.<\/p>\n

“If we can decrease the number of people asking for a test at those screening centres, then we might be able again to accommodate some of them who do not have the rapid tests yet,” he said.<\/p>\n

CBC<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

COVID-19 testing clinics across Quebec\u00a0are stretched to the limit and Quebecers\u00a0who are headed there\u00a0en masse face long waits for tests \u2014 and results<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":89281,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3539],"tags":[4338,4720,17030],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Quebecs-testing-sites-overwhelmed-as-Christmas-approaches-Milenio-Stadium-Canada.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89280"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89280"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89284,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89280\/revisions\/89284"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}