Inside Nova Scotia's COVID-19 Rapid-Testing Clinics

PORT HAWKESBURY - Nova Scotia's asymptomatic COVID-19 rapid-testing clinics arrived in two Strait Area communities near the end of February, and TELILE 24/7 host-producer Adam Cooke got a front-row seat to the process. 

Cooke was tested on-camera at the Port Hawkesbury Civic Centre's Bear Head Conference Room on the afternoon of February 22, joining 140 other local residents without visible COVID-19 symptoms that came to the venue that same day. Another 243 Strait area residents came out to get their tests at the St. Peter's Lions' Hall the previous day. 

Following a series of four screening questions, Cooke gave his contact information to volunteers with Praxes Medical Services, the Halifax-based firm contracted by Nova Scotia Public Health to carry out rapid-testing clinics across the province. Over the following seven minutes, he received a nose-swabbing and was quickly released. 

Although he would have received his results in roughly 10-15 minutes had he chosen to do so by text, Cooke still got his negative COVID-19 result in a timely manner, getting a phone call from Praxes Medical Services project manager Richard MacDonald within an hour of taking the test. 

In an interview conducted after Cooke's test, MacDonald said he and his team of volunteers were pleased with the turnout in both St. Peter's and Port Hawkesbury. While the latter venue drew roughly 100 fewer participants than the former, MacDonald noted that traffic was quite steady during the morning and early-afternoon hours of the Port Hawkesbury clinic before heavy snow slowed down the participation in the mid-to-late afternoon period. 

MacDonald, whose volunteers included Cape Breton-based members of his own family, spoke enthusiastically about the southern Cape Breton pop-up clinics and expressed hope that the rapid-testing process could return to the Strait area later in the spring.