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Kelowna residents can get a COVID-19 test without leaving their car, but it's not for everyone. A drive-thru testing station has been set up at the Urgent and Primary Care Centre in Kelowna, but it's by appointment only.
Staff members in gowns, masks and gloves set up the station in the parking lot outside the care centre this morning. Traffic was light so no one had to wait for long. Patients simply confirm their appointment and then a healthcare worker is able to conduct the nasal swab test while the person remains seated in the vehicle. In an email to KelownaNow, Interior Health wrote: "This measure will better protect other patients and our healthcare workers."
The testing is only for people who have been referred by 811 or their doctor. IH officials stress it is not a drop-in service. In fact guidelines from the BC Centre for Disease Control limits testing to people with symptoms severe enough for them to be hospitalized or likely to be hospitalized, healthcare workers, residents of long term care facilities or people who are part of an investigation into a cluster or outbreak.
Patients with no symptoms or mild symptoms are asked not to seek a test. The exception to that is healthcare workers who have recovered and require a negative test to return to work.
Interior Health urges people concerned about their health to refer to this symptom self-assessment tool.
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