COVID-19 rapid antigen screening kits for businesses can now be ordered from the Owen Sound and District Chamber of Commerce.
Chamber CEO Diane Austin says, “I’m really pleased we’ve got these. I can’t wait to get them going.” Austin announced in mid-April the Chamber was going to procure as many kits as possible, and says the response has been significant, “We have been bombarded with phone calls, even from the other areas.”
She says starting May 10th, businesses can begin to pick up the kits at the Chamber’s location on at the Suitespots building in Owen Sound.
Austin says the kits are available to any business with 150 or fewer employees and notes, businesses do not need to be chamber members and can be located anywhere in Grey Bruce.
The kits can be ordered on the chamber’s website at oschamber.com Austin says each business must designate a person who is responsible for the antigen screen kits and the proper use of them.
Austin says the antigen screening kits produce a result within 15 minutes, and can help businesses determine if an employee should be isolating. Austin says the screen is a nasal one, but the instrument isn’t as long as the one people would have experienced at COVID-19 assessment centres. She says that information is then sent to the Health Canada and Ontario’s Ministry of Health.
If a person’s kit shows a positive result they’ll be required to follow up through their local public health unit and to get a PCR test (polymerase chain reaction testing) that is analyzed through a lab.
Austin says the test kit distribution initiative is being done in collaboration with the Cambridge Chamber of Commerce, the Greater Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber of Commerce and the Ontario Chamber of Commerce.