HARTFORD, Conn. — Many major hospitals around the state have started their drive-through testing for the coronavirus.
So far, more than 300 people at Saint Francis in Hartford were tested, as well as over 200-daily at Hartford Healthcare.
Both institutions say this will make testing safer for everyone; patient and medical professional.
Dr. Michael Grey who is the Chairman of Medicine at Saint Francis said, “The fact you have a lot of outside ventilation, open-air means that you have a less likelihood of having the virus be spread.”
Dr. Grey says before you drive up, you will need a doctor's order as well as identification.
Even if you don’t have insurance you can still get tested, according to officials saying that costs should be low for everyone due to help provided from the federal government.
According to Dr. Grey this form of testing helps keep the emergency room from being overcrowded. “We don’t want everybody going into the emergency room who “A” is feeling well or having minor symptoms because we want to be able to take care of the sickest patients,” said Dr. Grey.
Trinity Health has multiple locations for alternative testing, Johnson Memorial in Stafford Springs, and Saint Mary’s in Waterbury which has said it has now slowed down it’s testing.
“The only reason slowing down some testing is the number of test kits available, so in order to space it out over time we can make sure we are up and running over tomorrow and the next day and we don’t want to just test all day Thursday and say okay that’s it for Friday, Saturday, Sunday,” said Dr. Peter Jacoby, who works at Saint Mary’s.
Officials say results may take up to 24-48 hours.
With the number of cases steadily climbing, Dr. Grey says we have not yet reached a point where it may slow down. “Now that testing is becoming more widely available we are definitely going to see more cases, but again I want to reinforce that the vast majority of people are going to be able to, even if they get this virus, they are going to shrug it off with minor symptoms,” said Dr. Grey.
Dr. Grey says older people and those with health complications are the only known at-risk groups, but he says health agencies on all levels are doing what they can to stop the spread of COVID-19.
Trinity Health has activated its own hotline which can be reached from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
The hotline number is 1-888-786-2790.