By Nehad Maaty

(Nehad Maaty is a staff journalist with the FOCUS Media Arts Centre)

The Corner (a Community Centre) in St James Town is offering free pop-up COVID-19 testing clinic during the pandemic.

The corner has announced restarting COVID-19 testing again in St James Town. Testing is being carried out by Sherbourne Health Center and is taking place at the St. James Town Community Corner (The Corner), located at 200 Wellesley St. East.   

The testing will last from January through March, 2021. It is free of charge and anyone could pop up to do the testing without an appointment.

The results come up within 2-3 days and health professionals are sure to contact those who got positive covid results to inform them, and see if they need any help with staying home in quarantine for 14 days.  In addition, The Corner offers multiple wrap up services including gift cards, free meals for those experiencing food insecurity, grocery delivery and information on isolation rooms as well as any kind of financial or medical assistance that residents could be in need of.

This is not the first time The Corner has offered the free pop-up testing  clinic during the pandemic. “Public health started last year in October of 2020,” says Dr. Warda Iqbal - the family physician at Sherbourne Health Center.  She continues, “we did about  8 weeks at that time then we took a bit of a break around the holidays and now we are back for around 12 weeks”.

“The clinic runs every week. We are here on Tuesdays  from 1-5 on and on Fridays from 9-1,” explains Dr. Iqbal.   Although the clinic was developed for local residents living in the St.James Town area, they don’t turn anyone away and will still do the testing even if the person is not from the area.

Shova Adhikari, the community Engagement Facilitator at the Corner, explains that one of The Corner’s role is to conduct outreach and promote awareness of necessary information about COVID 19 stating that, “we update the notice boards day to day with information, and we also translate it to different languages that are spoken around St. JamesTown.”

In addition, as part of The Corner’s intake and assessment process, if someone doesn’t have a family doctor, The Corner works in partnership with Sherbourne Health Centre on connecting them to a doctor from the neighborhood, or will give them information about family doctors in their area.  “Educating them about the importance of having a family doctor who has a track of their medical history and could help them in the future understanding their health conditions,” explained Nayanthi Wijesuriya, the Intake and Client Engagement Lead for Health Access, at The Corner.

The testing will last till March and Dr. Iqbal encourages anyone who feels unwell or has experienced some of the symptoms or has contacted someone who has positive COVID 19 to visit the Corner and try to get tested as soon as possible. It is also advised to stay home and “isolate after the test until you get the results.” states Dr. Warda.

If you live in St. James Town and want to get tested for Covid-19, drop by The Corner, at 200 Wellesley Street.