It’s been six months since the Timmins Chamber of Commerce started distributing free rapid antigen test kits for COVID-19 to businesses across the region. So it’s time to order your refills.
Any business with fewer than 150 employees qualifies. Chamber president Rob Knox says chambers across Ontario teamed up to buy the kits and distribute them, so that individual businesses don’t shoulder the cost.
“Because that would be counterintuitive to running a business,” he remarks, “if they weren’t participating in rapid testing and so far. We’ve helped over 300 businesses from Matheson to Moosonee. It’s going very well and it’s helping businesses.”
The $400 kit allows you to test employees on their arrival at work. If it indicates they should go for a full test, you don’t allow them to work that day.
Knox says it’s one way to handle the issue of vaccination.
“And I think if a business has concerns about whether or not an employee is maybe infected or has symptoms, this can ease their mind and rapidly check, have their people back in the workplace with the knowledge that it’s a safe workplace and a healthy one.”