Hamilton hospital network moves COVID-19 testing centre as local cases rise

Hamilton | COVID | Health | Latest News |

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Published July 12, 2022 at 5:42 pm

A Hamilton hospital network, effective tomorrow, is moving the site of its COVID-19 assessment centre.

St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton says tests for coronavirus will now be conducted at its West 5th campus outpatient unit, at level 0. Access will be through the door beside St. Joe’s Fennell Ave. outpatient entrance.

Appointments can be booked through HamiltonCovidTest.ca, or by calling Hamilton Public Health (905-974-9848). The assessment centre is open on afternoons and evenings, from 4:30 till 9 p.m., on weekdays, and from 8 a.m. till 4 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.

Hamilton Public Health Services are now giving weekly updates on local COVID-19 activity, with the next update due to drop on Wednesday (July 13). But all six of the leading indicators are trending up.

For instance, the weekly incidence of new cases per 100,000 people was 72 on July 3. It was just more than half of that, 38, two weeks earlier on June 19.

The positivity rate was 8.7 per cent at the last update on June 30.

The lagging indicators, hospital admissions and intensive-care-unit admissions, were stable at the last update. Vaccination against COVID-19, including third and fourth doses, strengthens an individual’s chance of experiencing the more severe short-, medium- and long-term health outcomes linked to the virus that is the spur of the more than 2½-year-old ongoing global pandemic.

Experts suggest that immunity protections begin to wane about six months after a jab. In Ontario, have to be at least 60 years old, or be an Indigenous, Inuit and Métis individual who is at least 18, to receive a fourth dose. In neighbouring Quebec, all adults have been eligible for a fourth dose since early May.

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