Testing sites should be improved, according to the opposition party.
A small team of healthcare workers from outside P.E.I. has been hired to assist with testing and vaccination efforts on the Island beginning Monday.
“This team is capable of running these types of clinics and will assist us in maintaining our services while assisting our personnel,” said Health P.E.I.
“We’re also considering our testing hours while balancing that with the workload demands we’ve placed on our workers.”
After some testing facilities had to close ahead of schedule over the weekend, P.E.I.’s Official Opposition demanded that COVID-19 testing clinic services be upgraded.
After reaching capacity, the Charlottetown and Borden-Carleton testing sites stopped accepting new people on Saturday.
This isn’t the first time it’s happened. The testing clinic on Park Street in Charlottetown had closed early the weekend before.
Michele Beaton, a Green MLA, stated that services must be improved.
“This has happened before, as recently as a year ago, when the advice to 20 to 29-year-olds in the Greater Charlottetown area was to be tested, and they completely overwhelmed our testing facilities,” she added.
“This is something we’ve seen time and time again, and it’s something we really need to confront and improve on.”
The testing centres that were closed on Saturday were reopened on Sunday.
In a statement released on Saturday, Beaton also stated that the province should provide washrooms at all testing locations and provide access to at-home quick tests, which she requested earlier this week.
“The aim of the statement was to ask the government to provide things like speedy testing, where it’s appropriate for individuals to have rapid tests so that they don’t have to be in these lines.” “The people who require the PCR tests can be in this queue,” Beaton stated Sunday morning outside the Charlottetown testing centre.
“As for restrooms, people are standing in line for three, four, or five hours.” It’s a fair thing to do just to provide them with a bathroom.”
According to an email from Health P.E.I., portable toilets have been added to the Charlottetown facility, but the statement didn’t say whether the same service would be extended to other testing sites.
“When possible, we prioritise walk-in traffic, especially in cold or inclement weather, and we’re looking for methods to improve our shelter.”
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