Parents are flocking to Carling COVID-19 assessment centre, new numbers show
CBC
The number of people getting tested for COVID-19 at London's COVID-19 assessment centre rose by just over five per cent from August to September, but the number of kids getting tested jumped by nearly 50 per cent, new numbers show.
In August, about 30 per cent of those getting tested at the Carling Assessment Centre were people under 18. In September, that number jumped to 41.5 per cent of all those getting swabbed.
"The testing volume increase among children was completely expected and it's not a sign of parents being concerned, it's a sign of school policies coming into play," said Dr. Chris Mackie, the Middlesex-London Health Unit's medical officer of health.
"When children have symptoms, the school policies require that testing, or isolation at home for the seven day period."
The London Health Sciences Centre, which manages the Carling Heights Assessment Centre, gave CBC News the following numbers:
Last year, the return to school saw a vast increase in the number of parents seeking tests for their kids and created long lines and bottlenecks that have not materialized this September.
The hospital which runs the testing centre has increased the number of same-day appointments to deal with the expected influx of people wanting tests, said Carol Young-Ritchie, a vice-president with the London Health Sciences Centre.
More Alberta seniors are now eligible for a provincially funded RSV vaccine.
More than 100 workers at a steel plant in eastern Ontario are being laid off either temporarily or permanently, as a company with facilities in Quebec and Ontario cuts its workforce due to challenging market conditions — including U.S. tariffs.
A small town northwest of Thunder Bay, Ont., has become the unlikely home for hundreds of foreign workers, but many may have to leave the community they've embraced after the end of a federal program put in place to fill gaps in Canada's labour market.
There's mixed reaction in Waterloo to an injuction allowing police to detain, arrest and charge anyone who is participating in unsanctioned street parties in that city this weekend.
Diabetes Canada is excited about Prince Edward Island's new pharmacare deal with the federal government, but hopes the province will reevaluate copays on diabetes supplies, says a senior manager with the organization.
After 26 years of accommodating guests from across the world, Faith Embleton says she and her husband Ken are ready to sell their bed and breakfast.
A group of big-name companies including Google, Meta and Dow have signed a pledge to support tripling the world's nuclear energy capacity by 2050, a signal of the technology's growing resurgence in popularity.
Five years on, Toronto-area doctors and public health officials are looking back at what they've learned since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic — and most agree the early experience will prove useful if the city faces another infectious disease crisis.
City staff would like Londoners to take a good look around their home and ask themselves a direct and possibly difficult question: Could everyone in your family survive at home, without leaving and with no other help, for a full 72 hours?
Liberal Leader Mark Carney will officially become Canada's next prime minister within a few hours, taking the reins as the country barrels toward a general election and continues to fend off verbal and economic attacks from U.S. President Donald Trump.
Recent cyberattacks in Newfoundland and Labrador should have been a wake up call for the federal government about the reality of an increasingly hostile world, says one cybersecurity expert.
A recent CBC News analysis found that Nova Scotia is rapidly losing some of its most affordable apartments, but housing experts say there are ways to prevent that.
Premier Susan Holt is defending her decision to not use electricity exports to Maine as leverage against U.S. tariffs, arguing the move might cause long-term pain for New Brunswickers.