Windsor Regional Hospital to close Met Campus COVID-19 Assessment Centre

Windsor Regional Hospital Met Campus COVID-19 Assessment Centre in Windsor, Ont., on Monday, Dec. 7, 2020. (Chris Campbell / CTV Windsor)

Windsor, Ont. — Windsor Regional Hospital is closing one of its two COVID-19 assessment centres.

The Met Campus COVID-19 Assessment Centre will close after its final scheduled tests on Friday, March 12.

Hospital officials say there are consistently lower volumes of individuals seeking tests for the virus.

WRH has periodically adjusted the hours of the testing centres since the start of the pandemic to reflect recent demand trends – expanding them to ensure same-day appointments can be made, as well as lowering them when possible to preserve human resources.

Individuals scheduled for tests at the Met site are being contacted to reschedule appointments to the Ouellette Campus COVID-19 Assessment Centre.

Hours at the Ouellette Campus COVID-19 Assessment Centre will remain unchanged at 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., seven days a week.

In order to schedule a COVID-19 assessment appointment, you can go online to https://www.wrh.on.ca/OnlineBooking on your mobile device or computer (using Safari or Chrome) and select a certain date/time for your appointment or by “first available time.” Have your health card in hand when booking online or calling in.

“Despite closing one of these two testing sites, we anticipate that same-day and next-day appointments will remain available,” said a statement from the hospital. “As always, we can once again readjust assessment centre hours if there is a change in demand for testing.”

WRH says recently the number of individuals seeking tests has been well below 400 per day at the two sites combined.

The Ouellette site has capacity to test as many as 500 individuals per day.

WRH’s busiest day for testing in 2021 was on Jan. 11, when 631 individuals received swab tests for COVID-19. Total daily numbers have not surpassed 500 tests since Jan. 18.

Hospital officials say the closure of the Met Campus COVID-19 Assessment Centre allows WRH to adjusting staffing to support the vaccination rollout process.