So far, no locations in Simcoe County have been included in the province's scheduled holiday testing blitz, which offers rapid antigen screening to individuals for free at pop-up sites that are so far focused mainly in Toronto and the GTA.
According to the provincial website, the pop-up sites will offer up to two million rapid tests for free in high-traffic locations such as malls, retail settings, holiday markets, public libraries, and transit hubs across Ontario.
The pop-ups will offer a take-home kit and some will perform the antigen screening on-site and will be operating throughout December and into January. Access will be limited to one test kit per person as supplies last.
The closest pop-up to Simcoe County that is currently posted is the Upper Canada Mall in Newmarket where kits will be available on Dec. 19 while the mall is open.
A rapid antigen test is only a screening tool and cannot diagnose COVID-19. Anyone who receives a positive result on the antigen test must self-isolate and seek a PCR test at a COVID-19 assessment centre. Click here to find a testing centre near you.
Rapid antigen testing is voluntary, and only available to individuals without symptoms of illness and who have not had recent contact with a known COVID case.
Individuals experiencing symptoms of illness or who are close contacts of a COVID case should not attend the pop-up clinics and should instead self-isolate and book a PCR test.
The current schedule posted includes pop-ups planned between Dec. 16 and 19.
The Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit posted to its social media pages that it does not know where in Simcoe-Muskoka Region there will be pop-up holiday testing, but will announce an update if and when they receive more information from the province.
The list of pop-up locations is available on the provincial website here.
