WINDSOR, ONT. -- Windsor Regional Hospital’s second COVID-19 Assessment Centre will start providing swab tests inside the St. Clair College Sportsplex Thursday.

Through the support of Ontario Health, the hospital was able to open a second location for testing starting Thursday and Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

“We are very thankful for the overwhelming generosity demonstrated by our friends at St. Clair College, who continue to partner with us to help prevent the spread of COVID-19in our community,” WRH president and CEO David Musyj said in a news release.

As of Tuesday, Sept. 8 the St. Clair College Sportsplex COVID-19 Assessment Centre will operate the same hours as the Ouellette Campus location — daily from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays and from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays, Sundays and statutory holidays.

The Sportsplex will be closed over Labour Day weekend, however the Ouellette Campus assessment centre will remain open.

The assessment centre at St. Clair College will continue to be used as WRH’s second COVID-19 Assessment Centre until a more permanent site is established at the Met Campus.

Plans for the Met site were delayed for several weeks due to the unavailability of trailers to house patients and staff for testing as the trailers were required by schools for the start of the school year, the hospital says.

More than 30,000 people have been swabbed at the Ouellette Campus assessment centre since it opened on March 16. An added 779 people were tested during a two-day “drive-thru” testing blitz at the St. Clair College campus Aug. 24 and 25.

Another COVID-19 assessment centre is located at Erie Shores HealthCare in Leamington and is open to the public seven days a week between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m.