{"id":36142,"date":"2021-02-01T17:43:55","date_gmt":"2021-02-01T22:43:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=36142"},"modified":"2021-02-02T10:39:02","modified_gmt":"2021-02-02T15:39:02","slug":"sackville-testing-site-due-to-expand-capacity-this-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/sackville-testing-site-due-to-expand-capacity-this-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Sackville testing site set to expand capacity this week"},"content":{"rendered":"

Horizon Health has confirmed that the site, located at the Tantramar Civic Centre, was performing a maximum of 19 tests per day last week, in its first week of operation.<\/p>\n

This week, the intention is to build up to 35 tests per day, says Horizon spokesperson Kris McDavid.<\/p>\n

MLA Megan Mitton says that there are hundreds of people in the Tantramar area now required to do weekly COVID-19 testing due to changes to border rules.<\/p>\n

The Sackville testing site opened on Tuesday, Jan. 26 after a considerable amount of effort by a number of different people, says Sackville Deputy Mayor Ron Aiken, including the Tantramar COVID-19 Task Force, MLA Megan Mitton, the president of Mount Allison Jean-Paul Boudreau, and Aiken himself.<\/p>\n

Aiken says the argument was that with new demands for testing of cross-border commuters and with students coming and going, Sackville was a \u201clogical place\u201d to have a testing site.<\/p>\n

But the long awaited Sackville site has not gone off without a hitch.<\/p>\n

Like all COVID-19 testing centres in New Brunswick, the Sackville site works by appointment only.<\/p>\n

When area residents tried to book appointments, they immediately noticed that when requesting COVID-19 testing on the province\u2019s online form, the Sackville site is not listed as an option.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/a>
Screenshot of the \u201cTest site preference\u201d options on Service New Brunswick\u2019s COVID-19 test request form. Photo captured Feb. 1, 2021, by Erica Butler.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Horizon Health then clarified that since Sackville was a temporary site, it would not be added to the online request form. Instead, residents were told to first request a Moncton site and then specify Sackville when they got a call back to book their test.<\/p>\n

In some cases this is adding an extra step.<\/p>\n

When people fill out an online request for test at the Georges Dumont hospital in Moncton, they get a call back from the Vitalit\u00e9 Health Network. And after asking for a test Sackville, they are told to wait for another call back, this time from the Horizon Health Network, in order to book a test at the Sackville site.<\/p>\n

Sackville resident Sherry MacIsaac Porter says the first time her husband requested a test, he ended up waiting four days before a call back to schedule it in Sackville. It\u2019s not clear whether that delay was due to communications between Vitalit\u00e9 and Horizon, or just delays related to the Sackville site.<\/p>\n

The second time he requested a test, Porter says he waited one day for his second call back.<\/p>\n

Porter says she doesn\u2019t understand why the Sackville location can\u2019t simply be added to the online request form.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt shouldn\u2019t matter if it\u2019s temporary or not,\u201d she says. \u201cIt can\u2019t be that complicated to add Sackville as a choice and remove it if\/when the time comes.\u201d<\/p>\n

CHMA has a request in to Horizon to explain the difficulties in booking. In the meantime, it might be a safer bet to select the Moncton Coliseum on the province\u2019s online test request form. The Coliseum site is run by Horizon, which also runs the Sackville site.<\/p>\n

If you have any questions or concerns about COVID-19 testing in Sackville, please get in touch with news@chmafm.com.<\/p>\n

Sackville\u2019s COVID-19 testing site will soon nearly double its capacity.<\/p>\n

Hear this story as reported on\u00a0Tantramar Report:<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\nhttps:\/\/canada-info.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Sackville-Testing-Site-Update-Feb-2.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Horizon Health has confirmed that the site, located at the Tantramar Civic Centre, was performing a maximum of 19 tests per day last week, in its first week of operation. This week, the intention is to build up to 35 tests per day, says Horizon spokesperson Kris McDavid. MLA Megan Mitton says that there are…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":36212,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57,218,223],"tags":[284,829,3745,823],"radio":[227],"origine":[274,275,277],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36142"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36142"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=36142"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=36142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}