THUNDER BAY — The COVID-19 response team at Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre hopes to open up a second community assessment centre at a local school.
The assessment centre at the hospital has been overwhelmed with hundreds of daily requests for tests, fuelled largely by the reopening of schools.
Provincial regulations require students to stay at home if they have one of a dozen potential symptoms of COVID-19, including sore throats or sneezing.
This has created a backlog of many hundreds of children waiting for tests or staying out of class for the mandatory 14 days.
Dr. Stewart Kennedy, the hospital's incident manager for the pandemic, says "We need to take care of the parents, the teachers and the children in this community, to make sure they don't have to stay home for 10 or 15 days" waiting to be cleared under the provincial protocol.
Kennedy said Wednesday that talks have begun with the Lakehead Public School Board and the Thunder Bay Catholic District School Board to identify a suitable location.
"So we want to deal with teachers, we want to deal with students, and parents. We will train the nurses. We will certainly staff it. We just need a site," he said. "We're working as a coordinated team to get that moving."
Kennedy hopes to confirm a location for the alternate assessment site by early next week at the latest.
Echoing suggestions that have been made by other hospital and education officials in the city and across Ontario, he's also looking to the Ministry of Health to shorten the list of symptoms that require kids to stay home from school.
In his practice, Kennedy said, "I see runny noses and sore throats every day. We want to actually put a little more science behind our testing, so it relaxes the demand on the assessment centre."
Mike Judge, president of the Thunder Bay local of the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario, on Thursday said he supports the idea, adding he believes there will be one centre on the north side of the city and one of the south side.
"I think it's an outstanding idea, to be honest with you," Judge said. "If we can expedite staff and students -- specifically teachers who are my concern -- getting tested and getting results quickly, as opposed to having hours and hours in line at the hospital, I think that's a great idea. I know that it will be done in a way that's safe, that is not heightening the exposure for anyone else who is in those schools who are assigned those sites. I only see the benefit of it."
British Columbia recently removed a number of symptoms from its student health checklist.
Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce is discussing possible changes to this province's list with the province's medical officials.
The first confirmed COVID-19 case in a school community in the Thunder Bay area was reported Wednesday at Ecole Gron Morgan, involving a primary grade student.
