Pop-up drive-thru COVID-19 testing centre at Canadian Tire Centre closes early due capacity

By Dani-Elle Dubé

Posted Sep 20, 2020 08:32:00 PM.

The two-day drive-thru COVID-19 testing centre at Ottawa's Canadian Tire Centre has officially shut down as it reached capacity before the scheduled closing time. 

According to the Queensway Carleton Hospital, the drive-thru closed up shop at around 3 p.m., about three-and-a-half hours before its schedule end time for the day. 

The testing centre reported swabbing 1,200 patients Sunday alone during its two-day run. 

While the centre reported up to about a 50-minute wait time to get swabbed on Saturday, paramedics reported only about a 10-minute wait time Sunday in the late morning.

The testing centre was a two-day drive-thru operating out of parking lots at the Canadian Tire Centre.

Paramedics from all over eastern Ontario came to help out, including the Ottawa Paramedics, Renfrew Paramedics, Cornwall Paramedics, Lanark County Paramedics Durham Paramedics, among others. 

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