If you are planning to travel or need a COVID rapid test for work, school or travelling, an Espanola pharmacy now has them available.
Robinson’s Pharmasave pharmacist Lynn Halliday says the Rapid Antigen COVID tests are now available for anyone who needs them.
She says the tests take about 15 minutes and individuals will receive their written results.
Halliday says there is a $45 fee for each test and walk-ins are welcome.
Vaccinations for kids
Health Minister Christine Elliott says schools, and an information campaign will play important roles, once children aged 5 to 11 are eligible for a COVID-19 vaccination.
Elliott says schools could be locations for vaccination clinics likely after regular school hours or on weekends, so parents can be with their children.
She adds there will also be a campaign to convince parents to have their children inoculated.
Premier Doug Ford has come under fire for saying earlier this week that he “understands” if some parents are hesitant.
But Elliott insists that doesn’t deviate from the government’s main message that everyone should be inoculated against the coronavirus.
The opposition says Ford’s comments undermine confidence in the vaccination program.
Staffing long-term care
The provincial government has rolled out more details of its plan to ensure every long-term care resident in Ontario gets four hours of care each day.
It will spend 100-million dollars over the next few years add another two-thousand nurse to the long-term care industry.
The program will extend tuition grants to workers who wish to become registered practical nurses, and to those R-P-Ns who want to become registered nurses.
Recipients will have to commit to working in long-term care for the same time period that they receive the tuition support.
An announcement is also expected shortly on the future wages of employees in the industry.
A three-dollar-an-hour pandemic boost in pay is set to expire on Sunday.
Foodbank demands increase
Food banks across Canada have seen a huge increase in visits during the COVID-19 pandemic and they’re bracing for an even bigger surge this winter.
Food Banks Canada, which speaks for more than 47-hundred food distribution programs across the country, says visits last March were up 20 percent over the year before the largest increase since the
2008recession.
Its report adds that rising inflation, higher housing costs, and the end of many pandemic-related support programs, will see even more people being forced to seek assistance.