Niagara businesses with 150 employees or less will be eligible for free rapid-screening test kits through an initiative from the Niagara Board of Trade and Commerce. Distributed from the Thorold Seniors Centre at 8 Carleton St S, the kits will be handed out, also to non-members of the Board, to help curb spread of COVID-19 in the workplace as more businesses open up.
Each business participating in the program must designate an employee to supervise the testing. That employee will receive the information on how to administer the tests, how to dispose of the used kits for negative tests, and how to handle positive tests.
If a test results in a preliminary positive for COVID-19, the employee will be required to leave the workplace, arrange for a PCR Test within 24 hours at an approved COVID-19 assessment site, and self-isolate until a confirmatory test result is received.
Each business will be required to submit their screening results online after each occasion. The accumulated data will be reported to the Ministry of Health via the online portal available to participating businesses.
The initiative was launched together with the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, as well as the provincial and federal government and comes as Ontario has entered Stage 3 of the provincial reopening plan.
Any Niagara business with fewer than 150 employees that wants to get started with Covid-19 Rapid Screening tests can visit https://nbotac.com/covid-19-rapid-screening/
