Rapid COVID-19 tests coming to Ottawa small businesses

By Jason White

Ottawa's small and medium-sized businesses will get a hand staying open and protecting their workers, during this third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, with free rapid COVID-19 tests.

The rapid COVID-19 tests are free for businesses with 150 or fewer employees, as they're paid for by the provincial and federal governments. 

The COVID-19 Rapid Screening Initiative will see the Ottawa Board of Trade roll out free rapid tests for small and medium-sized businesses in Ottawa, in partnership with Invest Ottawa. The goal of the program is to identify asymptomatic cases of COVID-19 that might otherwise be missed, helping to curb the spread of the virus in workplaces.

“We hope that through this program, we will be able to curb the spread and reopen our local economy safely,” says Ottawa Board of Trade President and CEO Sueling Ching.

The tests are being distributed by local boards of trade and chambers of commerce across Ontario that have joined the project. So far, 700,000 rapid COVID-19 tests have been split between 25 chambers of commerce and boards of trade across the province.

Rapid COVID-19 testing in small businesses was first successfully piloted in Waterloo region, where up to 30,000 employees in essential workplaces are currently receiving regular screening, twice weekly.

“We have been working diligently on a made-in-Ottawa plan, along with Invest Ottawa and other key stakeholders, and anticipate being ready to deploy by the last week of May,” says Ching.

Details on distributing the rapid tests to Ottawa small and medium-sized businesses are expected in the week before the program launches.

The Ottawa Board of Trade and the South Dundas Chamber of Commerce are among those currently participating in the program, but provincial organizers say more are showing interest in signing up.

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