Think you need a COVID-19 test? It just got easier
General testing for COVID-19 has started this week at all 11 southern Illinois clinics of the Christopher Rural Health Planning Corp., and the criteria to get a test is loose enough that almost anyone who wants a test qualifies.
CRHPC clinics in Du Quoin, Albion, Carmi, Christopher, Eldorado, Fairfield, Flora, Johnston City, Mt. Vernon, Sesser and Shawneetown started testing on Monday. The tests are sent to the state of Illinois laboratory in Carbondale and results are back in two or three days, according to CRHPC CEO Kim Mitroka.
People requesting a test may have a fever or cough, or shortness of breath or recent onset of body aches, sore throat, headaches, diarrhea or nausea, Mitroka said.
People who work in nursing homes or who live in a county where coronavirus cases have been diagnosed also can request testing (as of midday Thursday, Perry County has three confirmed cases).
Moreover, on Wednesday the CRHPC staff loosened the criteria even further, to include anyone whose workplace is opening back up, and employers are requesting staffers get tested before returning to work.
They'll also test the grandmother who is babysitting her grandchildren and wants to be sure she isn't COVID positive.
"(Testing) is growing by leaps and bounds," Mitroka said at noon on Thursday. "The first day our clinics tested about 32 people, by now, we've tested about 335 people as word gets around."
Seven positive cases have been diagnosed so far, she added, none of them serious enough to require hospitalization.
To request a test, call the CRHPC hotline at (800) 408-7351. You will be prompted to choose a clinic site closest to you, and your call will go to the triage nurse at that location. The nurse will go through a series of screening questions and then recommend whether you should be tested.
Each clinic has a COVID-specific entrance, but all the testing is actually done outside. Should a patient be sick enough to need hospitalization, they will be taken by ambulance to a local hospital.
"The whole idea behind the testing is that people who are positive know it and can self-quarantine," Mitroka said. "And people who are not positive can feel safe about going back to work, or just carrying on with their lives."
Mitroka said the local rural hospitals are testing people, but they aren't set up to test on a large scale. Instead, they are charged with preparing for worst-case scenarios - a big outbreak of COVID-19 and a lot of inpatient care.
"We're charged with the community testing," Mitroka said.
Mitroka urged everyone to wear masks in public and when you come to get tested at the clinic. The clinic will provide one if you don't have one.
"They don't have to be surgical grade masks," she added, "just enough to keep them from expelling when they sneeze or cough."