An open letter to Wellington-Halton Hills MP Michael Chong.
I am a constituent in Fergus, Ontario. I am having a nightmare with random COVID-19 testing.
I arrived from Europe to Toronto on May 25. I was given a pink sticker on my passport. No one at the airport explained what this meant, so I went home. On May 28 I received an email saying I had been randomly selected to do a test within 24 hours of arrival. By then it was two and a half days after I arrived.
On May 28 I received a phone call asking if I had done a test, which I hadn’t, and telling me I had to get tested. I emailed Switch Health which is looking after the process and they said they would courier a test by Purolator.
On June 2 I got a form from Purolator saying I had to pick up the test at the Guelph location. I was home that morning and they did not even notify me that they were here. I picked up the test on June 2 and did it on June 3. That was the only easy part of this process.
There was no direction with the test as to how to ship it back to Switch Health. I took the package to the local pick-up point in Fergus. The Purolator driver was there and he said they will not pick up COVID tests; I have to phone Purolator. I did that and after about a 20-minute wait I spoke to an agent about a pick-up. She said they would not be able to pick it up until Monday between 9am and 5pm. I live in a condo and will have to be here to buzz the driver in to pick it up from my door. This means I potentially have to stay home all day Monday.
I think you will agree that this is an extremely onerous process and is really useless, as I was unable to do the test within 24 hours of arrival; it has been a week and two days since I have arrived. The service by Purolator is terrible.
I am a senior and fortunately am retired so I can spend all this time on the testing process; I have a car so I can drive to Guelph and around Fergus and I have a computer so can do the online test. I feel sorry for all the seniors and other people who do not have the time, car or computer. What can they do?
If you can do anything to sort out this mess, I would appreciate it.
Kathie Kurtz,
Fergus