The only coronavirus testing facility in the Tri-Cities is now set to close

The only COVID-19 testing and assessment facility in the Tri-Cities will be closing its doors at the beginning of next month due to “limited staff and resources” and doctors who are “burnt out.”

In an open letter to residents of Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, and Port Moody, as well as Anmore and Belcarra, Jordon Sugie and Dr. Carllin Man write that “with great sadness,” they have made the decision to shut down the facility as of October 2.

The letter states the testing and assessment clinic was first opened on June 15 of this year, as a result of a lack of “publicly available COVID-19 testing in our area.”

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The facility was also opened following the closure of a testing site in New Westminster on June 14. “At that time, we understood that a new high capacity public COVID-19 testing site would be open in several weeks.”

However, “we did not feel comfortable with this gap of service to our community, and as a result, we made significant sacrifices to open the Tri-Cities COVID-19 Clinic in Port Coquitlam.”

Since the facility’s opening, “our staff has worked tirelessly… in anticipation of the opening of a high capacity testing site within our community,” they write.

But now, after four months, “this has still not happened.”

As a result, “with our limited staff and resources, we are no longer able to continue running our testing site because our doctors are burnt out, and our staff are overworked – we simply cannot continue for our own health,” they state. “We sincerely appreciate everyone’s support with our efforts during the past few months.”