Thousands of Edmontonians continue to book appointments for COVID-19 testing

Demand for COVID-19 testing continues to remain high in Edmonton.

The number of appointments booked in the Edmonton zone has grown from around 600 a day at the end of May to more than 1,000 a day in early to mid-June, and AHS said it has continued to see “strong demand” since then.

READ MORE: High demand for COVID-19 testing leads AHS to expand capacity, extend hours at south assessment centre

AHS expanded the south side assessment centre, located at 7319 28 Avenue, on June 12 to meet demand, particularly for asymptomatic testing; the number of swabbing stations were doubled to 30, allowing staff to be able to increase swabbing from 1,500 a day to 3,000 a day.

The site lead previously told Global News that AHS would monitor demand and adjust capacity at the centre as needed.

RELATED: Edmontonians flock to drop-in COVID-19 testing centre

However, spokesperson Kerry Williamson said there are no plans to adjust the number of swabbing stations at the assessment centre.

There were 1,358 appointments booked on June 5, 3,417 appointments booked on June 8 and 4,212 appointments booked between June 23 and 24, according to data provided to Global News from AHS.

Data provided by AHS for June 23 and 24:

• 9,027 people have been tested
• breakdown by zone:
  • Calgary – 3,524
  • Edmonton – 4,212
  • Central – 396
  • North – 521
  • South – 380

1:46 Inside Edmonton’s walk-in COVID-19 testing clinic