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Roughly six additional staff were hired to process test results on the new equipment, which requires specialized training and expertise, Yee said. The company may hire more people, depending on the volume of tests it receives.
Since March, COVID-19 swabs from Windsor-Essex have been sent for processing in London. When that lab reaches capacity, local specimens are sent further down Highway 401 to Toronto.
Although Public Health Ontario’s website states 60 per cent of test results are to be completed within 24 hours and 80 per cent should be completed within 48 hours, the turnaround time for tests from Windsor-Essex is much longer. As of Friday, the region had the fourth-longest wait in the province, with only 20 per cent of test results available within one day, on average.
Medical Laboratories of Windsor expects to offer same-day test results, even once it expands its capacity to process 1,000 tests each day.
“I know if I was a patient, I would feel happy and satisfied if I would have the result before I go to bed — then I could keep my family safe,” Yee said.
Not all local tests will be processed at the Windsor lab. Recent data from the province shows more than 11,000 COVID-19 tests were performed in Windsor-Essex last week, a number far exceeding the lab’s anticipated capacity.
One thing the pandemic has shown is the need for areas throughout the province to have the ability to do molecular testing, the kind of testing required to detect COVID-19, Yee said.
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