(03-17-2022, 06:35 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: You're literally talking about them shutting down the COVID testing centre, so it sure seems like we're pretending it's gone.
Yes, lots of the mitigation measures are hard (although some of the things you cite like suicide have been thoroughly debunked), which is why I am blind with rage that we aren't doing the easy things like ventilation, testing, masking, and vaccinating to limit the spread of the virus and avoid having to take those extreme measures again.
But to my point, it seems very likely that it will spike again, if not now, then in the fall, and they are likely to have to reopen the centre.
But again, I don't think it matters to redevelopment...development isn't going to happen for years and years...our government is nothing if not slothlike.
They are shutting it down because they no longer need the facility, they're not pretending it's gone. Do you really think GRH would just bury their head in the sand? They've done an incredible job over the last two years. They're simply moving the testing facility which is all I was trying to bring up with my post, because it can now open up more interest in redevelopment for this location. It might take years indeed, it might not. Who knows. I can definitely say there are developers already interested, however, so we may see things happen here sooner than we anticipate. It'll depend on what the region wants to do, though. Sadly, knowing how they work (the new train station being a good example), it could sit dormant for a while. Though there is some interest in potentially using the site for one-off or pop-up events. Blue Dot in Space, a local underground experimental electronic music and arts festival, was going to hold another festival in the building but sadly the pandemic threw a wrench in that. There has also been some interest from the arts community to hold temporary exhibitions there.
But ultimately, it is costing GRH a hell of a lot of money to rent that from the Region of Waterloo, not to mention staff it for 12 hours a day with nurses, clerical staff, a physician, cleaners and security officers from Paladin. Testing isn't as easy to get now due to provincial guidelines, but even without those changes, most people are not getting tested due to the fact omicron ultimately did not have much of an impact on personal health as initially anticipated especially with the high vaccination rates (of course, due to how easily it spreads, it did cause a huge spike at first, but that rapidly subsided). Most people get better very fast or do not even feel anything. The guidelines are something like you must isolate for 5 days or whatever. I'm too lazy to look up specifics of that.
If they need to reopen it they will surely do so, or at least find a new location. But as it stands now, it's not needed. I knew someone who works there at times and they barely test anyone. Perhaps 50-60 people per day, if that. She was pulled back to the main hospital, though. The nurses are there 12 hours a day and apparently do almost nothing. It's better that they get pulled back to the hospital to work there where they are needed, rather than wasting our limited health care staff to sit around and watch Netflix. They'll be operating at 40 Greene Street which is part of the hospital, but reducing testing hours to 8 hours and cutting the staff so they can back up colleagues on other hospital units and save money.
There are still options to get tested with a PCR test either for free or at cost and rapid antigen tests are given out for free at many locations. Contrary to initial popular belief, they are actually highly sensitive. I was talking to a microbiology staff member I know from GRH and mentioned the inaccuracies of antigen tests, but he said they are actually pretty good and suffice for where we are right now.