There was a steady stream of people coming to be tested for COVID-19 at the new mobile screen centre in Pierrefonds on Thursday.
Nurses at the pop-up clinic can test more than 200 people a day. Officials hope to bring more than 600 people through the facility by Saturday.
The STM bus turned makeshift testing centre is parked at the corner of Alexander and Logan streets in the Cloverdale neighbourhood — an area described as a “hot zone” where there is a high concentration of COVID-19-positive residents.
“We try to reach out to those people because they probably have contact with other people who have it. To try and get them tested, to try and decrease the hot spot and eventually make it a green zone,” Dalia Toledano, associate director of West Island Public Health Board, told Global News.
Toledano, a registered nurse, says it’s highly recommended that everyone wear masks in the public areas in this high-density suburban neighbourhood made up of a lot of rental complexes.
“It’s important to get tested.”
“That’s the only way we will be able to try and control the outbreak,” she said.
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The health board has been aggressively promoting the drop-in clinic, where no appointment is necessary.
The Lester B. Pearson School Board published a public service announcement advertising the mobile clinic on the school board’s Facebook page.
The borough mayor is also on board, encouraging people to visit the pop-up screening facility and get tested.
“It is for other folks as well to be able to come here and be tested,” Pierrefonds-Roxboro borough Mayor Jim Beis said.
Some of the people who were tested Thursday told Global News that being tested isn’t pleasant but well worth it.
“I’ve been going out and about and I would like to know — am I positive, am I negative? It’s good to know for myself, for my family,” Kisanya Agagnier, a Pierrefonds resident, told Global News.
For now, mobile clinics like this one may be the best weapon in the ongoing battle against the invisible enemy.