If the clinic is able to get more support to keep running these tests, Richard said, it will keep doing it. And he said the clinic decided to do drive-by testing on Friday because Solaris told the clinic it had the capacity to run more tests. Like Integrity in Danville, Richard said the Bluegrass clinic is sending the tests it performs to Solaris Diagnostics for analysis. Richard said this was a one-day-only initiative at his clinic in Lexington, for now, with no immediate plans to continue doing "drive-by testing" past Friday. They'd tested about 60 people by then, and he expected they would end up testing about 100 patients by the end of the day. Friday, Richard said they were already running low on testing swabs. "It's obvious some people are just worried," he said.Īcross the river: Southern Indiana offering drive-thru coronavirus testingīy around 2 p.m. He said they had to turn several people away because they weren't showing symptoms and had shown up to ask for a test mainly out of nervousness over the pandemic. John Richard, who led Bluegrass' testing initiative, said an epidemiologist screened prospective patients who came by to determine who should be tested based on their own judgment and guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Unlike Integrity, Bluegrass extended an open invitation for anyone to swing by and request testing, although not everyone who asked for a test got one.Ī small line of vehicles gradually grew outside Bluegrass during the afternoon, where clinic workers - wearing masks and other protective gear - spoke to people through car windows and took down their information on clipboards before bringing them inside for testing.ĭr. That patient is doing well, and the clinic planned to test about 14 people Friday.Īnother clinic, Bluegrass Extended Care Medicine at 989 Governor's Lane in Lexington, also invited people to drive by for a COVID-19 test on Friday. Integrity started doing this last week and has identified its "first positive" case of COVID-19, Ravi said. It takes around 24 to 36 hours to get the results back. He said the Integrity team asks people to stay in their cars and then meet them outside to do the tests, which they send to Solaris Diagnostics, a private lab in Nicholasville, for analysis. "We're not randomly testing people like a traditional fast-food drive-thru," Ravi explained. Then, they invite select patients to come by for a test. They're using teleconferencing to speak with people first about their symptoms and risk of exposure to COVID-19. Pallaki Ravi and a team of medical professionals are providing drive-thru testing by appointment. Here at a primary care clinic called Integrity Extended Healthcare, Dr. "VIRAL TESTING" declared a makeshift, black-and-white sign in this Central Kentucky town, signaling the way to a rare place in the state where people can can get a drive-thru screening for the coronavirus. Watch Video: COVID-19 pandemic: Drive-thru testing begins in KentuckyĭANVILLE, Ky.
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