Free coronavirus testing site in Columbia ‘hot spot’ ZIP code attracts hundreds

A line 70 cars long snaked around Eau Claire High School, as hundreds waited to be tested Thursday to see if they had the COVID-19 virus.

“Felt like it touched my brain!” said Lasonya McMath, 52, who waited in line for 80 minutes before being tested with a long nasal swab that a health care worker garbed in a protective visor, blue gown and gloves put in a test tube, then in a clear plastic bag. But, McMath said smiling, she was glad she came because she has children and she wants to be sure of her status.

The testing in one of South Carolina’s high coronavirus areas — ZIP code 29203 in north Columbia — is being overseen by the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. It began Wednesday and will continue into next week. Participants will be notified by phone of results within 72 hours.

It is what state political leaders of both parties, MUSC and other health organizations hope will be the beginning of a widespread mass free testing effort across South Carolina that will focus on areas where the coronavirus is particularly bad.

“In times like this, whether it’s the Mother Emanuel shooting or floods, South Carolinians put aside political differences and come together,” said House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Murrell Smith, R-Sumter, who was one of the state political leaders in both parties instrumental in working with MUSC to set up the Columbia testing site, which he hopes will be one of many to come. The Columbia site is mobile — people drive up or walk up and get in line to be tested. It is outdoors, where the chances of catching the highly contagious disease are minimal.

“This is what we have got to start doing,” said Rep. Todd Rutherford, D-Richland, who as Democratic Majority Leader is one of the legislative leaders working with MUSC and Republican state House leaders — including Speaker Jay Lucas, R-Darlington; and Majority Leader Gary Simrill, R-York, Rep. Smith — to get the site in 29203.

The testing is paid for with state dollars under an agreement with House Republican and Democratic leaders, said Rutherford, who was at the Columbia site Thursday.

“It took all of us working together. We have got to start testing, and we weren’t going to wait until the House goes back into session and a bill moves slowly from subcommittee to full committee and to the House floor,” Rutherford said.

“It’s got to be done now — if we don’t know what we’ve got, we won’t be able to reopen,” Rutherford said.

National experts say before a community or state can reopen, it has to know how many people are infected and whether the trajectory is up or down — and the only way to know that is by widespread testing.

The triangular-shaped zip code, which is near where Rutherford lives and extends toward the heart of downtown Columbia and over to I-77 North, has a population of nearly 40,000, of which about 80% is African American. The median household income is about $33,000.

Across the state, African Americans are being killed disproportionately by the coronavirus, Rutherford points out.

Blacks make up about 27% of South Carolina’s population but account for 43% of the state’s known cases to date, according to the latest data from the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control. And they make up some 53% of those who die from the virus, DHEC has said.

As of Thursday, DHEC reported more than 6,000 known cases of the coronavirus in South Carolina and a death toll of 244.

Zip code 29203 has 82 confirmed cases, which makes it the zip code with the seventh highest number of coronavirus cases in South Carolina.

“We were looking for an African American community that has been traditionally underserved in health care for years,” Rutherford said. DHEC’s state epidemiologist Dr. Linda Bell suggested that a testing site be set up in zip code 29203, and MUSC jumped in to make the mass testing possible, he said.

“They did 262 people yesterday, and they are coming back tomorrow, and they are going to do as much testing as people are willing to do,” said Rutherford, calling zip code 29203 a “hot spot. ... We’ve got to test, test, test, and we aren’t going to wait until people come to us. We are going to go where the people are.”

Everybody is being tested, whether they have symptoms or not. People don’t have to come in cars to be tested; they can walk up. The swabs will be taken to the Medical University Hospital Authority’s downtown Charleston lab for testing.

People in cars waiting to be tested told a State newspaper reporter that they heard about the testing in various ways — through Facebook, text messages from their pastor or on television.

“I don’t think I have anything, just making sure,” said Gary Phillips, 67, who was wearing a mask behind the steering wheel as he waited for his nasal swab.

Hugh Coleman, 62, a supervisor at a telecommunications company, said, “I had a co-worker who tested positive, and since he tested positive, I’m just doing this as a precautionary measure. I have a grand-boy who’s not two years old yet, and I want to be around him and know that it’s safe to be around him.”

Other partners in the 29203 testing effort are the Columbia Police Department, Richland School District 1 and Doctors Care, which provided onsite clinical staff, who were overseen by MUSC medical experts who run MUSC’s drive-through site in Charleston. Registered nurses performed the tests.

Positive results from the testing will be shared with DHEC “for tracking purposes,” said an MUSC spokesperson in an email.

MUSC’s goal, which parallels the aim of state lawmakers, is “to expand access to COVID-19 screening, testing, monitoring and treatment for patients in rural and underserved areas” with the goal of “slowing the spread of disease and enhancing public health in (South Carolina),” the spokesperson said.

Rutherford said state funding will underwrite other testing locations around the state.

“We’re just getting started.”

Smith said, “It’s the right thing to do. In times of crisis, South Carolina comes together and we take care of each other.”