Screening people in the workplace with rapid antigen testing will help identify individuals with COVID-19 to help protect others from exposure and provide much needed data about viral prevalence within job sites and communities across Canada.

The goal of this program is to identify individuals who are asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic to prevent them from spreading the COVID-19 virus in the workplace, at home and in the community.

The Haliburton Highlands Chamber of Commerce located at 195 Highland St Lower Level, Haliburton Ontario will act as a distribution center for Rapid Antigen Screening kits to be used for self-screening in the workplace under the guidance of proper Health and Safety Guidelines provided.

Workplace Screening
The purpose of this process is for employees of small and medium sized businesses who:

• Asymptomatic (do not have any symptoms of COVID-19).
• Have not had any contact with a known positive case of COVID-19.
• Employees with recognized COVID-19 symptoms are required by Public Health Authorities to register for a PCR Test at a local Regional Public Health approved location and should not be given a Rapid Antigen Screening Test.

If an employee develops symptoms, they MUST leave the workplace immediately, self-isolate and follow the direction of local public. The employee must arrange for public PCR test that must be completed. The employer should not allow the return of the employee until a confirmed negative result is provided.

If you are looking for screening for individuals other then your employees and volunteers working on site you can purchase kits here: COVID-19 testing for organizations | COVID-19 (coronavirus) in Ontario. 

The steps to participate in this program are as follows.

1. Enter into an agreement with the Haliburton Highlands Chamber of Commerce. You will need to Download, sign and email the agreement before you can place your first order for tests. The agreement will be sent to you via email when you place your first order.
2. Assign a supervisor for your organization that will order and pick up the test kits from the chamber and supervise employees self-administering the tests.
3. It is recommended that you test your employees twice per week for effective screening. Tests come in boxes of 25 so you will usually receive your order in multiples of 25, enough for 2 -3 weeks of testing. The supervisor can order the test kits online for a pick up from the Chamber Building on Mondays or Wednesdays. Orders must be placed by 3:00pm on the Friday prior. 
4. On the pickup of your first order the Supervisor will have to watch a 5 minute training video so they can supervise and inform your employees on the self-administering of the tests. Click here to view the Self- Administration Training Video.
5. You will need to report weekly to the chamber at ed@haliburtonchamber.com how many tests were administered and how many of them were positive, negative or inconclusive. 

Once you have reported on 75% of the tests you have already received you can order more tests through the online form.
Please ensure that all parts of the test kits and all packaging is disposed of correctly, none of it is able to go in the recycle bin.

RESOURCES TO GUIDE YOU

Frequently Asked Questions – Click Here
Screening Workers Memo from the Ontario Chief Medical Officer of Health – Click Here 
Considerations for Antigen Point of Care Testing – Click Here
Video Training on Screening – Click Here
Ontario Health Video Training on Self Collection of Rapid Screening – Click Here