Pharmacies will offer customers the opportunity to be tested for COVID-19 in their branches, starting next week.
• Read also: More than 250 million cases of COVID-19 worldwide
• Read also: The risk of catching COVID-19 in Nunavik is highest
The Horizon Santé pharmacy group will offer rapid tests, in collaboration with SécuriMed. People will therefore be able to make an appointment, go there, take a test and then have a result in less than 30 minutes.
This new measure will simplify the procedures for travelers, who have to take a screening test before leaving “either because the airline requires it or because the country requests a test” indicated Jérôme Henri Lavoie, General Manager and Pharmacist of the Horizon Santé Group.
The Canadian government requires a negative result of a PCR test, be analyzed in a laboratory, to enter the country. This option should eventually be offered in pharmacies. “We will soon be offering the PCR test which will count for the Maghreb countries which use the PCR”, added Mr. Lavoie.
The antigen test gives a 91% reliable result. At Montreal airport, this type of test costs more than $ 100, while the one sold in pharmacies will cost less than $ 50. It is mandatory to present yourself on site to confirm the identity of the person. It will therefore be impossible to do it in administrative segregation. “Here, people who have symptoms or who have been in contact with people who have COVID as usual are not accepted in the trade,” explained Jérôme Henri Lavoie.
But, the possibility of rapid tests at home exists with medical companies like SécuriMed, a service offered to entrepreneurs. “Parents who want to be sure not to be contaminated, because, sometimes, we wait for the result of the child, we take the test individually,” said its president, Louise-Danielle Duquette.
With the resumption of most economic activities, such as training or business travel, demands for screening tests have increased. Rapid screening tests allow employees to lose fewer days of work, which is a plus for companies.