Ontario Premier Doug Ford promised help will be coming to residents of southwestern Ontario in need of increased COVID-19 testing at some in the near future.
The drive-thru testing centre in Kitchener was closed on Wednesday due to unruly residents and traffic snarls caused by long lines of cars and even longer wait times.
Residents have also complained of week-long waits to book an appointment at one of the testing centres.
Guelph saw its assessment centre close five hours early on Thursday because it had already reached capacity.
Down the road in London, there have been issues with lines for several days as wait times have also climbed above two hours.
On the same day as the Kitchener testing centre closed, Ford announced that 60 pharmacies would begin conducting COVID-19 tests in the near future but they were confined to the GTA, the Ottawa area and Huntsville.
“I just want to see how these go,” the premier said on Thursday.
“The 60 that we have, we had to put them in, as we say, the hot spots. But we’re there to support the people in southwestern Ontario.”
Ford says he spoke with his advisors about addressing a shortage of testing facilities in southwestern Ontario.
“We’ve mapped this out and we will have pharmacies in that area to support the people of southwestern Ontario,” he said.
He says an announcement will be coming over the next few days about the areas.
“The folks from southwestern Ontario — I’ll have an announcement probably in the next couple days,” he said. “I’m looking at available pharmacies in those regions as well.”