March 29, 2021

COVID TESTING STILL FAST, EASY, PAINLESS IMPORTANT PREVENTION

MUSKOKA — While arms in the air over vaccines, the eyes of the storm are centred on noses at the Assessments Centres.

The Bracebridge and Huntsville sites continue to do the brisk business of evaluating potential pandemic patients.

Just as maybe millions Canadians have experienced the past year.

It’s an important tool to aid prevention by preventing spread by known infectors.

A typical Monday morning — with a number of parents walking their children in hand-in-hand — is a COVID case in point.

It’s like a NASCAR pit stop.

So what’s it like to put your life in the latex-gloved hands of a pleasant nurse or paramedic wielding the teeniest probe you’ve ever had shoved up your facial orifice?

And why? Ear, nose and throat? All sore?

“Check, yes, of course.

“And because I care about myself, my family, my community, my country and my world.”

**The four-door testing clinic operates like a NASCAR pit stop.**

Five frontline workers quickly and efficiently process and begin the process of testing the streaming corona customers coming through the doors of the portable located behind South Muskoka Memorial Hospital.

Four white cubicles numbered with an open doorway and little larger than an old phone booth await you each with a plastic throne.

There’s no registering or signing in with a pair of workers toiling behind Plexiglas tabletops. They’re either conferring with colleagues over paperwork or answering the phone and returning calls to those who couldn’t get through at 1-888-383-7009 — and who had to leave a message to be called back and booked in.

“Please go right in to No. 3.”

“But — I haven’t signed in ….”

“They’ll do that in there,” says a bustling nurse/traffic cop as she scurries between booths in blue scrubs, wearing a yellow gown down to her ankles, a colourful surgical cap, a mask and grey disposable gloves.

Soon enough, in pokes the masked, glassed and face-shielded head of paramedic Mack Fraser.

A genial gentleman with a friendly countenance, big hands and a soft touch — I’ll shortly discover.

**Paramedic Mack Fraser inserts the swab for a COVID lab sample.**

A quick flash of the back of the health card — and a driver’s licence — with the aid of a hand-held computer that looks like it’s a leftover credit card or ATM reader no longer in use in a restaurant.

Then it’s down to business: “What brings you here? What are your symptoms? Have you been in contact with anyone who has tested positive?

“Ever had this test before? What about a vaccine?”

All answers diligently punched in to a device that will deliver the data to who knows where in Ontario.

Next: the paperwork. A helpful explanation and copy of how and when you’ll get your result. And how to isolate at home with or without family in the meantime.

“Two to 10 days, they say, but it’s usually faster. They’ll let you know if you’re positive.”

If not, go online in a couple of days and learn for yourself.

It’s easy. Just use the handy QR code that securely scrambles 65 years of healthy or unhealthy living and condenses it in to a message revealed through the size of a postage stamp.

Then the reveal.

**The reveal. Mack Fraser shows the business end of his profession.**

Safely shrouded and hermetically sealed inside that sterilized plastic shrink-wrap is a surgical utensil the length — but thankfully not the width — of a Shopsy hot-dog.

With ease and using his nimble digits to work and tickle the nether regions of my nasal cavity, Fraser wiggles in the spindly fishing prod to ensnare a microscopic sample of snot secretion for a nameless lab technician farther away to test for the serious coronavirus.

It was simple and painless — easier than swabbing a deck.

In the front door, out the back in barely 10 minutes.

And your parking is validated.

Can’t wait for the results.

EASTER WEEKEND TESTING:

The two COVID-19 assessment centres in Muskoka will be open to appointments for COVID testing with staggered operations on Easter holidays.

The Town of Huntsville’s COVID-19 Assessment Centre at the Active Living Centre in Huntsville will be open Good Friday, April 2, 2021 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare (MAHC) COVID-19 Assessment Centre located in the portable behind the behind the South Muskoka Memorial Hospital Site will be open Easter Monday, April 5, 2021 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

A reminder that appointments are required by calling the Muskoka Assessment Centre line at 1-888-383-7009.

Bracebridge Assessment Centre to Adjust Operating Hours After Easter

Effective Tuesday, April 6, 2021, MAHC’s Bracebridge Assessment Centre is adjusting its hours of operation to 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday to Friday.

The change in operating hours will better align with laboratory pickup of COVID-19 swabs for processing, which supports more timely reporting of test results.

And as a reminder, testing is for eligible persons by appointment only as per information available at www.mahc.ca/COVID-19Testing/.