Montreal to open more clinics, use rapid tests to curb hours-long lineups for COVID tests
CBC
Montreal public health says it will expand its COVID-19 testing network after being inundated with people seeking tests this week as caseloads continue on an upward trend following the return to school.
Dr. Mylène Drouin, Montreal's public health director, says more clinics are expected to open, capacity for testing at CLSCs will increase and rapid tests should soon be used in order to curb long wait times at COVID-19 testing centres across the city.
"We are looking at [...] with the rapid test, for example, other ways that we can increase capacity and use them in specific settings when there's outbreaks or with symptomatic patients," Drouin said.
Public health will look at all options "to make sure we can increase our capacity."
Testing sites became more limited over the summer, with some of the more popular clinics having closed. More than 100 people waited over an hour on a sidewalk today at a clinic on Chauveau Street in Montreal East — the only testing centre open in the region — to get tested.
WATCH| Montrealers frustrated over long wait times for a COVID-19 test:
"It's pretty exhausting," said Elee Gabrel, a student at Chomedey-De Maisonneuve high school, of his 45-minute wait.