As the province gears up to combat the spread of COVID-19, the government has announced it will be opening six coronavirus assessment centres across Ontario in the coming days.
Five of them will be located in the GTA.
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To ease pressures on hospital emergency departments, the dedicated assessment centres have been placed in areas experiencing significant growth in testing. And, according to the province, these centres are located in dedicated spaces that will facilitate high-quality care, to protect broader patient populations.
More assessment centres are expected to open in the coming weeks.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday morning, Deputy Premier and Health Minister Christine Elliot said:
“One of the first things we are doing is setting up separate assessment centres so that people who want to be tested to see if they have COVID-19 can go to these separate assessment centres. We have six that will be set up within the next several days and more will be established across the province very shortly."
The first six assessment centres will be located at:
This news comes after yesterday's announcement that the province would be providing up to $100 million in a COVID-19 Contingency Fund.
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As well, the province has approved new physician billing codes for telephone assessments, which will enable doctors to conduct more assessments over the phone. The idea is to help keep patients at home rather than in primary care settings where they would co-mingle with others.
