A few of you have contacted us about the Rapid Testing kits now being made available directly to employers. The province announced yesterday that its making rapid testing kits available directly to all essential businesses that are allowed to be open and who require staff to work on-site. You can register and have kits sent directly to your workplace: www.ontario.ca/testingonsite. The kits are free and will help screen for asymptomatic cases of COVID-19. The screening test can be performed anywhere and does not require shipping to a lab. Results are available in 15 minutes.
Any employees who test positive from a rapid test must still attend a Public Health Unit approved test site for the regular Covid-19 test (and which are confirmed by a laboratory). Please note that we are not necessarily recommending or suggesting that you offer or mandate rapid-testing for any staff. Moreover, it appears that this program is being offered to employers who wish to offer the rapid test kits on a daily or regular basis (not ‘one-offs’). Therefore, unless you have the sense that most or all of your employees are interested in being tested daily with a rapid test kit, this may not be an appropriate or effective option. However, it is worth considering and is potentially a very beneficial screening tool in workplaces where strong levels of interest and cooperation from employees is anticipated. For additional details, click here. There is some employer training and commitment required before opting-in to this program, and we recommend you review those requirements beforehand, click here.
If you need assistance or more information on these or any other HR issues, please feel free to contact our offices, [email protected] or call 705-400-7145.
