Ibn Sina, CVS partner on free rapid testing

Community clinic system Ibn Sina Foundation and CVS Health have partnered to offer free rapid COVID-19 testing starting Tuesday at Ibn Sina’s southwest Houston clinic.

Licensed CVS Health physician’s assistants, nurses and pharmacy staff will swab patients for the virus when they arrive at the clinic, located at 11226 S. Wilcrest Drive. Test results will be provided on the spot, according to CVS Health.

Patients must call the clinic for a same-day testing slot and fall under the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention criteria for testing. Federal guidelines prioritize people who show symptoms of infection, such as a fever, cough, shortness of breath, chills, sore throat, muscle pain, vomiting, diarrhea and/ or recent loss of taste or smell, as well as those without symptoms who have been asked to be tested by local health departments or doctors.

The medical professionals will use a test from medical device company Abbott Labs designed to produce positive results within five minutes and negative results within 13 minutes, said Monica Prinzing, a CVS Health spokesperson.

A health care professional will provide patients with their test results on-site, along with treatment plans and directions on quarantine and exposure tracing, Prinzing said. The process takes 30 minutes upon arrival.

Unlike other test sites around the greater Houston area, the new test site is not a drive-thru and does not require patients to come in their own vehicles.

“This community clinic will eliminate one barrier to ending the pandemic that far too many people face: access,” U.S. Congressman Al Green, who represents the district the clinic is located in, said in a statement. “By locating the clinic in a vulnerable community, we make testing more accessible physically to those who need it most.”

Ibn Sina serves patients at several clinics across the greater Houston and Port Arthur areas. Patients can book COVID-19 testing appointments at its southwest Houston clinic by calling 281-495-7462 or texting 281-8535555.

The foundation is named after Ibn Sina, an 11th-century Persian Muslim physician known in English-language textbooks as Avicenna. It was founded in 2001 by a group of Muslim doctors and business leaders to serve poor and uninsured communities.

CVS Health, based in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, has opened dozens of test sites across the greater Houston region and nationwide in recent weeks. It plans to operate 1,000 COVID-19 drive-thru testing locations.