Delco, Trinity Health team up to provide COVID-19 testing for six months
Delaware County Council is partnering with Trinity Health Mid-Atlantic to provide COVID-19 testing for six months in an action that is not expected to cost more than $135,000.
Trinity will be administered the testing in cooperation with the Delaware County Department of Intercommunity Health and the Chester County Health Department, who has been handling all COVID-related services for Delaware County throughout the pandemic in lieu of the county having its own health department.
“As you know the county has been providing COVID testing for the last several months and recently we’ve reached out to all of three of the health care systems in the county and Trinity Health has agreed to provide additional COVID testing at the Mercy-Fitzgerald site in Darby,” Lori Devlin, director of the county’s Intercommunity Health Department, said.
She explained that they will be providing testing on-site five days a week, testing up to 50 people a day beginning Nov. 30.
Devlin said there will be a number of walk-ups, or people who have not preregistered, who will be able to be tested at this site.
County Councilman Kevin Madden said that priority is given to those who have a known exposure.
Devlin agreed, adding, “We are looking to individuals who are either symptomatic or have had known exposure and are first line employees of our schools.
We want to make sure that our first responders and front line workers have that first opportunity to be tested.
“It’s really not a general testing site for just someone who says, ‘I’m interested in being tested,’” Devlin said. “We’re really focusing on individuals who need that testing to be done. Obviously, we’ve talked about the increase in our numbers here in the county so we want to make sure that that testing is available.”
Delaware County Council Vice Chairman Dr. Monica Taylor said that the county
has a really limited staff without its own county health department to provide such functions as this testing.
“Trying to implement the testing that we’ve been doing over the last several months has really been a lot for our staff along with our Medical Reserve Corps,” she said, as she thanked Devlin for trying to partner with health networks to expand testing capabilities throughout the county.
Devlin said she was hopeful another unnamed site would be open to provide five-day-a-week testing by
the end of this month and that a third would open in mid-January.
She said talks were continuing with other health systems about the possibility of assisting with additional testing with the county.
Information on the testing is available on the county website at delcopa. gov. Click on the “Coronavirus” icon, then the “Information about Testing.” An interactive map allows visitors to see all active testing sites throughout the county, including the one at Mercy Fitzgerald.