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Patients can look up test results online, similar to the public health reporting sites, and positive cases will receive a call both from the pharmacist and from Public Health.
Staff at The Medicine Shoppe pharmacy on Canotek Road, one of the 60 pharmacies in Ontario designated for testing, said they would be offering testing to people after-hours, and would likely roll out testing this weekend.
The Cedarview Guardian pharmacy on Strandherd Drive said it was working toward offering testing but would not be ready for Friday.
Rexall, with one location in Orléans designated for testing, did not return a request for comment Thursday.
Hurley said the government should be working to expand capacity at existing assessment centres rather than engaging private companies in testing.
“You already have hospitals running assessment centres, where the only people going in there are professionals, well-equipped, regulated and supported by people in infection control. There’s intense cleaning and the only thing going on in those environments is testing,” Hurley said.
“With pharmacies, there’s whole side industry selling groceries, but a lot of the clientele who are going to a pharmacy are people with medical conditions, or people who are elderly who are going in to pick up prescriptions, and they’re not people who can afford to contract coronavirus,” Hurley said. “The idea you would use a commercial facility to test people seems really unwise, and I can’t imagine this is the safest alternative.
