Mobile COVID-19 testing is still in trials but here’s when it could go Whatcom-wide
Whatcom County could take COVID-19 testing on the road as early as Monday, Aug. 24, although details are still being finalized and the exact start date is still being determined.
Field testing has been occurring since Monday, Aug. 10, as part of the effort to bring mobile testing to different parts of the county. The goal is to make it easy for people to get tested for the new coronavirus by offering testing in a broader geographic area and by allowing people to get tested without first having to go to a doctor and get a referral.
The focus of the first week has been on hardware, software to register people for testing and processes, according to Amy Cloud, spokesperson for Whatcom Unified Command, the multi-governmental agency that’s directing local pandemic response.
Those who were tested in this early phase came from a pool that included close contacts of confirmed cases and others who have reached out to the Health Department about testing because they don’t have insurance or a primary care provider, officials have said.
The Whatcom Health Department and unified command are working together on the mobile testing project.
“The trials of the community-wide, low-barrier COVID-19 testing program are progressing well,” Cloud said to The Bellingham Herald in an email on Friday, Aug. 14.
“Mobile testing will expand its hours of operation and locations, rotating between sites defined geographically by Whatcom County’s six school districts. This will better accommodate those,“ Cloud said.
Officials will know Wednesday or Thursday exactly when mobile testing will start in the county, according to Cloud.
Here’s what you need to know for when mobile testing does start:
▪ You will need to schedule an appointment to get tested.
▪ If you have health insurance, you will need to provide that information as part of the registration process. But testing is available even if you don’t have insurance.
▪ You don’t have to pay for testing.
▪ If you provide an email address, you will receive an email within 24 hours of being tested telling you how to obtain your test result.
▪ If you provide a phone number, you will be called within 72 hours of testing with your result.
▪ But if you test positive, the Whatcom County Health Department will call you.
Once available to the public, mobile testing will run five days a week and test up to 320 people a day, according to a previous Bellingham Herald article.
Officials already have experience with broader testing.
In July, Whatcom County operated a pilot drive-thru site at Bellingham’s Civic Stadium that tested 1,814 people over four days. An appointment wasn’t required but the wait to get tested was as long as three hours.
The price tag totaled $126,000 for two weekends and required the help of 50 volunteers as well as staff for 328 worker shifts, according to the Health Department.
Officials called the pilot drive-thru testing, which couldn’t accommodate online scheduling, a model that was “unsustainable,” according to the Health Department in a previous Bellingham Herald article.
The mobile approach they’re field testing is expected to help with the wait time and staffing levels, in part, because workers won’t need to spend time on site gathering information from those being tested, officials have said.
More details about testing locations, hours and how to register — which will be online and on the phone — will be provided in announcements in the coming days.
