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Kamloops  

Sun Peaks now has a COVID-19 testing site

COVID testing site opens

Getting tested for coronavirus is now doable in Sun Peaks.

A COVID-19 testing site has been set up in Sun Peaks Centre, located at 3200 Village Way.

A notice on the municipality's website notes testing was made available as of today (Dec. 4) at 10 a.m. Both the nasal swab and gargle tests can be performed, according to Laura Bantock, executive director of the Sun Peaks Community Health Centre.

Testing is available Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, between 10 a.m. and noon. Appointments are mandatory and can be booked online via Interior Health. (Click here to fill out the form or call 1-877-740-7747, daily between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m.)

"If testing goes as we think it will, we can expand from two-hour clinics to four-hour clinics," Bantock says.

People from other provinces or countries can also be tested. They must bring their work visa document and passport. 

Moreover, masks are required for testing. One will be provided if needed.

Sun Peaks Mayor Al Raine calls the new testing site "a good step forward."

"We do have employees here who don't have vehicles [to go into Kamloops to get tested]," he tells Castanet of one of the benefits, noting there are also young athletes from Ontario and Quebec at the mountain's training facility.

"We still have people arriving from other places and obviously we have to be on our toes. ... I think it's a good preventative measure."

Raine has previously told Castanet he'd like to see rapid COVID-19 testing in the village.

"I wish that was available because that would make it a lot simpler. There’s still is time between when the person gets tested and the results come out and the communication of the results to people and all of their contacts," the mayor says. 

Raine adds he had a recent conversation with Dr. Carol Fenton, the local medical health officer, about rapid testing and made the request. 

"The response was rapid tests aren't necessarily as accurate as the slower [swab and swish] tests," he explains.

"If there is a 20 per cent error factor, at least you have 80 per cent of the cases nailed down. I'm not the medical expert. I have to certainly accept their opinion that that's not the approach. I have a hard time understanding it," he says.

Editor's note: A previous version of this story stated the nasal swab test was the only option available in Sun Peaks. Laura Bantock says that has changed and now includes the gargle test too.



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