Ontario Continues to Expand Access to Rapid Testing for Workplaces

To ramp up its fight against COVID-19 in workplaces, and in addition to the recently-announced partnership between the province and the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, the Ontario government has launched a new rapid testing portal to make it easier for all essential businesses to access free rapid testing to help keep employees and their families safe.

Through the Provincial Antigen Screening Program, Ontario has already delivered more than nine million rapid testing kits to nearly 1,600 workplaces. Test shipments to essential businesses have more than tripled since the beginning of April.

Businesses are encouraged to participate in the program by registering at the Ontario Testing On Site page. It provides free rapid antigen screening kits to help screen for asymptomatic cases of COVID-19 that might otherwise be missed. It is one more way that businesses can help workers and their families stay safe and keep the virus out of workplaces. Program eligibility was recently expanded to include any business that is allowed to be open and requires staff to work on-site.

This program complements the recently launched rapid testing initiative for small- and medium-sized businesses through the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, providing them with a useful tool in the fight against this pandemic. For the Brantford area, if your business is essential and open, ordering free rapid tests through the Chamber of Commerce Brantford-Brant is another way to help keep transmission low and workers safe.

The recent launch of a rapid testing initiative run jointly by the Ontario government and the Ontario Chamber of Commerce has already proved to be successful. In just two weeks, Ontario has received orders for more than 850,000 rapid tests and is quickly delivering them to small- and medium-sized businesses in more than 40 communities across the province.

As the results of positive PCR tests are already reported to local public health units (PHUs) through the provincial lab network, the Ministry of Health is updating program requirements so organizations providing rapid antigen screening will no longer have to report preliminary positive results to PHUs, nor will they be required to report results of confirmatory lab-based PCR tests to the province. These changes will help encourage greater use of rapid testing by reducing the administrative burden and implementation barriers for all organizations and workplaces, while still maintaining strong public health and safety measures.

Rapid antigen point-of-care testing goes hand in hand with public health measures, such as symptom screening, physical distancing, masking and hand hygiene. Any positive results from a rapid antigen point-of-care test must be confirmed with laboratory-based polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing.