Rapid antigen testing expanded

Centra Care can now conduct more than 20,000 tests a week

AdventHealth Centra Care urgent care centers are doubling their rapid antigen testing capacity, hiring new clinicians and expanding hours, the health system announced.

Centra Care, which is one of main providers of antigen testing in Central Florida, can now conduct more than 20,000 tests a week, officials said.

Dr. Timothy Hendrix, medical director of AdventHealth Centra Care, said that the demand for testing has stayed relatively steady, even though COVID-19 infection rates, hospitalizations and deaths have declined.

At AdventHealth, the number of hospitalizations has dropped to about 260 across the sevencounty region in Central Florida. That’s about half of the numbers about a month ago, he said.

“This is a very slow, steady decline,” said Hendrix. “So it’s what I’ve termed tenuous. It’s improving. I’m encouraged but we still want to be very careful because this could worse very quickly.”

Across Central Florida, more than 230 people with COVID-19 are hospitalized, according to the latest available data from the state. That’s compared with 460 a month ago. Among the four counties, Orange County has had the sharpest decline in the number of cases, but all have reached a plateau during the last 10 days.

The gold standard and the most accurate test for COVID-19 is still a PCR test.

Some doctors’ office and many walk-in clinics and urgent care centers offer PCR testing and the turn-around time for the tests have improved to as little as a day, as large national labs like Quest and LabCorp have boosted their capacity.

Antigen tests, on the other hand, give results in 15 minutes but are slightly less accurate, with the potential to give a negative result when someone’s positive.

Quidel, the maker of the antigen test used at AdventHealth, “says that it’s 96% accurate if done within that first five days of symptoms. So the period of time when you have the highest amount of virus that you’re shedding,” said Hendrix. “Outside that range, we start to lose a little bit of accuracy but not much.”

AdventHealth began offering rapid antigen tests in June. It has so far performed150,000 rapid antigen test throughout the state, diagnosing 18,000 people, said Hendrix. That’s including 114,000 tests in Central Florida and 12,000 positive results.

Antigen testing is primarily offered to people who have symptoms or have been in contact with someone who has COVID-19.

“Let me just clarify that just

being curious and going to a doctor’s office or urgent care to get a test, your insurance isn’t going to pay for that quite frankly. You have to have a diagnosis or a reason to perform any diagnostic test,” said Hendrix.

You can pay cash to get the test without a medical reason. Hendrix also urged the public to get a flu shot this year.

“No vaccine is perfect, but you reduce your risk of complications and you’re not going to have severe symptoms,” he said.

For more information about rapid antigen testing, visit CentraCare.org. Locations in Sanford and Waterford Lakes will operate extended hours until midnight, Monday through Friday. The Lake Buena Vista Centra Care continues to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week. For a complete list of testing sites across Central Florida, visit orlandosentinel.com/health

Dr. Timothy Hendrix, medical director of AdventHealth Centra Care, talks about rapid antigen testing.