Another pandemic centre closes in Windsor-Essex due to ‘dwindling demand’
A migrant worker isolation centre. (File)
After helping 1,200 people, the Isolation and Recovery Centre is now closed.
The centre opened in the summer of 2020 to give temporary foreign workers – most of them from the agriculture sector – a place to recover from COVID-19.
Officials have never disclosed the location of the centre, citing privacy for the people who needed the service.
“The Public Health Agency of Canada provided funding for the initiative, which involves the collaboration of local governments, health agencies and agri-food representatives,” County of Essex officials wrote in a statement Friday.
The City of Windsor took on responsibility and oversight of the centre until the County took over on July 1, 2022.
It closed Friday, “due to dwindling demand for the service and the end of the current funding agreement,” the statement read. “No agri-food workers have been isolating and recovering at the centre in recent months.”
The Canadian Red Cross provided daily management of the site for the duration of its operation, with medical oversight provided by Erie Shores Health Care, Essex-Windsor Emergency Medical Services, and Windsor Regional Hospital.
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