Students who need a COVID-19 test to go back to school will soon be able to go to a special student clinic.

Lambton Public Health is setting up three student assessment centres to help ease the demand for testing at the current sites.

Last week, 1,320 people were tested in Lambton County.

Dr. Sudit Ranade says Lambton Public Health has one assessment center open already, another will come on line today and the final student assessment center will be open at the end of the week.

Public Health isn’t giving out exact locations yet, but the medical officer of health says they are set up across Lambton County.

“When initially assessment centers started (at the beginning of the pandemic) =one of our concerns was – this is not a walk in service. Part of the reason is not a walk in services, because we don’t want a bunch of sick people congregating around each other. So what we’ve done is created an appointment based service.”

Parents who have used an online screening tool created by the province and find their child has one of the symptoms listed can call public health for an appointment.

“Because it is cold season and because the prevalence of COVID-19 is currently low in Lambton County over 90 per cent – 98 per cent essentially of the coughs and colds that you see will be exactly just that.

“It is important to remember that if you’re symptomatic, it is a good reason to get tested.

“So if you would fail that screening tool, if there’s been some on that tool that you would have that might be consistent with COVID-19, that is preventing the child from being in school, then that’s really the purpose of getting the test. So we can rule out COVID-19 in those kids and get them back to school when they are significantly better.”

If your child does fail the online screening tool, you can call public health at 519-383-8331 to book an appointment near you.