Health district to end drive-thru COVID testing this weekend

Taylor Cooper, The Brunswick News, Ga.
·2 min read

Sep. 16—The Coastal Health District plans to end drive-thru COVID-19 testing at the Southeast Georgia Health System hospital in Brunswick on Saturday due to the wide availability of other testing options and low demand.

"With free PCR and rapid antigen testing so readily available elsewhere, we can close this site without jeopardizing anyone's ability to get COVID testing," Dr. Lawton Davis, health director of the Coastal Health District, said in a statement.

The number of people seeking tests has dropped drastically over the past year, peaking last in January with two consecutive weeks of over 3,000 tests, according to health district data.

"One time we had more than 4,000 people a day, but last week was 89," health district spokeswoman Ginger Heidel told The News. "Some people still need a PCR test for travel or whatever, and you can still get that through the kiosk."

A testing kiosk is available at the Glynn County Health Department, 2747 Fourth Street in Brunswick, 24 hours a day and seven days a week, she said. Kiosk tests can return results within 48 hours, according to the health department.

"The kiosks dispense a test kit that includes a nasal swab and instructions on collecting the specimen," according to the health department's statement.

"Once the specimen is collected, it is safely packaged back into the kit and placed in the kiosk. The specimens are picked up daily and sent to an accredited lab for PCR testing."

Another kiosk can be found in Darien at the Southeast Georgia Physician Associates primary care office, 1022 Miller Lane SW.

Free at-home COVID tests are also available at all health department offices. For more information, visit covid19.gachd.org.

Saturday is the last day of a roughly year-long partnership between the Coastal Health District and SGHS to operate the drive-thru site. Heidel said the hospital wanted to get back to using the employee parking lot in which the drive-thru testing facility was located.

In Glynn, Camden and McIntosh counties, 108 new cases were reported in the week ending Wednesday, according to the SGHS. In Glynn, 69 were reported; in Camden, 37; and in McIntosh, two.

A total of 55.1% of Glynn County residents have been vaccinated, while the number was 44% in Camden, per SGHS COVID data. As of Wednesday, the health system's Brunswick hospital had five inpatients infected with COVID while it's Camden campus had two.