More than 500K COVID-19 tests taken in Ottawa during 1st year of pandemic

More than half a million swabs were taken at COVID-19 assessment centres in the first year of the pandemic, according to the team in charge of coronavirus testing in the capital.

The Ottawa COVID-19 Testing Taskforce released statistics Monday marking one year since The Ottawa Hospital first opened one of its centres to test for the virus locally on March 13, 2020.

In total, workers at Ottawa assessment centres took 535,312 swabs in the first year of the pandemic.

The city’s testing system was memorably challenged during the peaks of the pandemic in Ottawa, but capacity eventually caught up to match surges in demand.

While the Brewer Assessment Centre — the first such testing site in Ottawa — could only handle roughly 330 residents per day when it first opened, the site is now able to test up to 2,460 residents on weekdays.

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City-wide, the daily lab capacity stands at 8,421 tests per day.

Average turnaround from the time a swab is taken to a resident receiving their result is now 28 hours.

The busiest month on record in the pandemic was September, which was marked by long lineups outside local clinics as the return to school brought families out en masse to get their children tested.

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That month alone, Ottawa’s testing clinics swabbed 79,650 people, according to the task force.

Demand and lineups fluctuated amid spiking levels of COVID-19 locally, the implementation of online booking systems and changes in the provincial guidance for who should get tested for the virus.

The Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario has tested a total of 52,943 children to date, while 13,295 residents of long-term care homes have been tested for the virus locally.

The Eastern Ontario Regional Laboratory Association, which covers more than just Ottawa, has processed a total of 650,770 tests since the start of the pandemic.

In total, Ottawa-area hospitals and community health partners have opened up 13 assessment centres to accommodate demand for testing in the capital. This includes five traditional assessment centres, three COVID-19 care centres, two pop-ups and three community health centres.

The most recent testing figures show that 1,184 swabs were taken locally on Sunday with 2,557 lab tests processed.

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