State Health Department leaders acknowledged testing access issues at recent media briefings, particularly in supplies for rapid COVID-19 tests.

Watch Video: COVID-19 statistics: Cases on the rise among children as school starts Health Department working to get more COVID supplies More: OKC hospitals report their own capacity data, showing how scarce beds are amid COVID-19 surge “It just makes the most sense to be able to do it closer to home without having to make an appointment, without having to call multiple resources to try and get a test.” “If we aren’t going to do the bare minimum of asking parents to mask their children to come to school, then find the resources to provide testing on campus,” she said. She was able to get her daughter tested Tuesday and wants to see testing being offered through schools in the future. Last Thursday, Mónica Santillán in Stillwater started making calls trying to find a testing appointment for her daughter, who had a cough and sore throat and had been notified that she had a COVID-19 exposure in her class at school. They both got one Monday, after waiting three hours at an urgent care in Norman, they said. On Wednesday, her family returned to get tested ahead of an upcoming trip and waited three hours in line.įor Sarah Harrison and their girlfriend, Kylie Hushbeck, both 21 year-old OU students, finding a rapid COVID-19 test was a struggle. Sarah Cotton, of Mustang, said she spent over five hours in a drive-thru line at a Crest grocery store in Yukon on Monday to get a rapid test for her daughter. View Gallery: Masking and vaccination efforts ramp up across the USįor others, finding a same-day test can mean a long wait. Oklahoma poison center: Do not take ivermectin for unapproved COVID-19 treatment Both PCR and rapid antigen testing are available at no cost to patients.

The site first offered drive-up testing without an appointment, as well as scheduled time slots, but in response to overwhelming demand, it switched to appointments only. “We felt like it was necessary to stand these resources up to serve our communities.” “When we heard that our community is really struggling to find a location, we felt like that's within our obligation in health care to provide,” said R’Nee Mullen, the CEO of Diagnostic Laboratory of Oklahoma. Demand has been high for tests this past week, and there are fewer supplies available than earlier in the pandemic, he said.Īfter hearing concern from medical providers and others in the community that it was difficult to find a test, Diagnostic Laboratory of Oklahoma opened a drive-thru testing site this month at its corporate headquarters in northern Oklahoma City. At the Oklahoma City-County Health Department, appointments for COVID-19 tests are being booked about three days out, Phil Maytubby, chief operating officer, said Tuesday.

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