Richmond appears to be the only municipality in the Lower Mainland to not have a designated COVID-19 testing site open to the general public.
Why that’s the case remains somewhat a mystery considering plans were afoot to establish just such as site at Thompson Community Centre.
In fact, the city was on board with providing the facility and any needed services to establish the testing site, explained city spokesman Clay Adams, but for some reason Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) pulled the plug.
Repeated calls to VCH to explain why the plan fell through went unanswered. A VCH spokesperson, however, said the decision would have been made by VCH’s Emergency Operations Centre, located in Richmond.
An interactive map put out by the provincial government shows all the COVID-19 testing sites in B.C. and who is eligable.
In the vast majority of municipalities in the Lower Mainland, there is at least one site open to the general public.
For example, anyone with symptoms can go to the Delta/Ladner testing site as a walk/drive-in and will be seen on a first come, first served basis. The same is true for a site in Burnaby, located in Central Park.
Vancouver has a number of such sites.
Even Whistler with a population of about 12,000 — Richmond’s population is almost 220,000 — has a testing site for the general public open every day from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
The only testing site in Richmond is at Richmond Hospital, with limited hours — from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. And is only open to healthworkers and first responders, according to the provincial website. The general public is told to call 811 (HealthLink) to be directed to an alternate site.
The only other options for Richmond residents are to be tested at one’s doctor’s office, however not everyone has a family doctor, and many doctors now have limited hours. Or, go to the emergency room to get a referral from an emergency room physician and then proceed for testing. However people need to call ahead.
The final option for Richmondites is to find a testing site in another municipality.
Apart from the issue of accessability, the province’s approach to testing has evolved in the course of this pandemic.
After the initial testing of returning travellers, vulnerable people, health-care workers and those living and working in long-term care homes, the province switched gears in mid-April and started broader community testing, and currently anyone with COVID-19 symptoms can be tested.
However, those without symptoms will not be tested, in part because it may result in a false negative.
The next step is a serology test, currently being developed, that will allow people to be tested to see if they’ve been infected and have developed antibodies to the virus.
VCH is currently trying to improve accessibility at the Richmond Hospital testing site as some have complained it is not accessible for wheelchairs.
