Whatcom opens drive-through site to test high-risk populations for coronavirus
The Whatcom County Health Department has expanded testing capacity for COVID-19 by opening a drive-through testing site and deploying a mobile testing team to senior living facilities for adults who are at high risk of serious illness.
The health department’s drive-through testing site will serve high priority populations through a partnership with Northwest Laboratory, which is located in Bellingham.
“By creating these opportunities for priority population testing, the health department aims to free up capacity at other medical provider or clinical agency testing locations for the public,” said Cindy Hollinsworth, communicable disease and epidemiology manager for the health department, in a news release.
Patients must be referred to the drive-through site for testing by their health care providers. They can’t request testing for themselves, the health department said in a release.
And who’s part of the high-priority populations? Those are people with symptoms of COVID-19 who:
▪ Work in health care or public safety sectors.
▪ Live or work in an institutional or congregate living setting, such as nursing homes.
▪ Work in essential services, such as grocery stores, pharmacies, public utilities, etc.
▪ Are at risk for severe illness, such as those who are 60 years and older, people with underlying health conditions and pregnant women.
Specimens collected at the drive-through site and from the mobile team should have results within 24 hours of being shipped to the lab, according to the health department.
Last weekend, Northwest Laboratory announced it had been validated to begin running tests for the new coronavirus — becoming just one of three facilities in Washington state to be validated. The other two are the state Department of Health Public Health Lab in Shoreline and the University of Washington.
That will mean a quicker turnaround time for results and greater availability of testing kits, according to a previous Bellingham Herald article.
“We’re doing everything we can to expand testing,” said Claudia Murphy, spokeswoman for Whatcom Unified Command, the agency made up of multiple local governments that is overseeing the COVID-19 response in the county.
Murphy said the location of the drive-through testing site wasn’t disclosed so that nurses at the site don’t have to spend their time turning away people who want to be tested but don’t have a referral from their health care provider.
PeaceHealth St. Joseph also has started to offer drive-up testing at its former south campus in Bellingham, and Family Care Network has been working with Northwest Laboratory to provide that testing, which has a quicker turnaround for results. Those tests are only for their patients.
This story was originally published April 4, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
