September 23rd, 2020

Ford’s testing failures are putting Kitchener families at risk

KITCHENER – NDP MPP Laura Mae Lindo (Kitchener Centre) has released a statement after the drive-thru COVID-19 assessment centre in Kitchener reached capacity at 7:30 a.m. this morning, with reports of staff facing verbal abuse and threats of violence:

“The scenes we have been witnessing at COVID-19 testing sites in Kitchener are completely unacceptable, and are putting the safety of families and health care workers at risk. There is never any justification for blaming or threatening the frontline workers who are working around the clock without the resources and support they desperately need.

We’ve seen Kitchener families having to get in line overnight in the hope of getting a test, only to be forced to wait up to nine hours with many turned away even before the testing site was due to open as we saw this morning. Kitchener teacher Melissa Valant shared her story with me on Twitter after she tried to book a test in advance and was told she’d have to wait a week. Melissa, who needs a test to go back to the classroom, was turned away three times when she visited the Glasgow testing site, and only got a test on her fourth attempt.

Another Kitchener resident, Carole Zettel-Lindner came down with a fever and mild symptoms and did the right thing by getting tested. She had to isolate while awaiting the result, and her husband Kevin had to juggle work and look after the kids as their daughter could not go to daycare until Carole got her result. After six days of waiting, and calling the local public health unit, she finally got a negative result.

This is Doug Ford’s responsibility. He created this mess. He promised to finally publish a fall preparedness plan this week that’s already months late. Instead, we’ve still not seen a new COVID-19 testing strategy and public health units are still not getting the resources they need immediately.

As we face the second wave of COVID-19, Kitchener urgently needs more assessment centres, extended hours, more staffing and more public health resources to respond to the surge in cases.”

Quotes

Melissa Valant, Kitchener resident and teacher

“If it is currently taking days to get a test, I can’t help but think of those frontline workers or other parents who risk losing their jobs if they don’t show up. I am fortunate that my children are older and my husband works from home. With situations like these, let’s be honest, desperate times call for desperate measures. Children are going to show up at school sick because tests aren’t readily available and accessible and people need to work to pay bills and put food on the table and many people don’t have the luxury of many sick days to fill in the gaps or child care for that matter. This is a serious issue and it needs to be fixed yesterday.”

Carole Zettel-Lindner, Kitchener resident

“It’s very disturbing that the premier wants to test more people daily, but yet we can't get results out to people in a quick turnaround and therefore leaving us all in limbo. I find this really unacceptable as I don't know if my husband and my children need to be tested based on when we find out results or what to do. The premier needs to get results faster to people.”