Free drive-thru COVID-19 test offered Friday in HS
Healthy Connections’ free pop-up COVID-19 drive-thru testing tour, which has tested about 1,300 people in 13% of Arkansas’ counties, will return to Hot Springs Friday and Hot Springs Village June 23.
With no appointment or insurance required, testing will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday in the Hot Springs Mall parking lot, and from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. June 23 at 121 Cordoba Center Drive in Hot Springs Village.
“If you want to be tested, come see us; we’ll try to get you through the line as quickly as possible,” Healthy Connections’ Business Developer Jeffrey Slatton said. “You can also download the form online if you want to do that before you come,
that will speed up your process even further. … The test only takes about 1o seconds to do.”
While the test is still a nasal swab, like most other COVID-19 tests, the one being conducted at the pop-up is referred to as the “simple test,” Slatton said.
“If you go on our website, GetTestedFree.com, you can see a video of it actually being done,” he said. “This is not the test where they take the Q-tip and jam it up to your brain; that’s not what this is. This is one where they insert the tip into your nostril and they swirl it around three times in each nostril. It’s not painful at all; it’s really fast, really easy.”
Test results will take five to seven days to get back, Slatton noted.
There is no limit to how many people can get tested at each pop-up.
“When we were at the Village a few weeks ago we did run out of testing at that event, but I think now we’ve kind of taken precautions and we’re in pretty good shape on tests right now,” Slatton said. “I don’t know what that number would be, but I don’t think we’re going to get to the point where we’re going to run out of tests again.”
As for who should get tested, he said they will test anyone regardless of symptoms, therefore it’s up to the discretion of the patient.
“The governor said he wants as many people to be tested as possible,” Slatton said. “I think that’s now kind of become the standard across the country now that testing has become more available, so again if you want to be tested, get tested. There’s no requirement to be tested at this point in time unless your job requires it of you, but again if you want to know your status, get tested, and you can find out your results and see where you stand.”
After a test, quarantine is not required prior to receiving results, but would provide a more “accurate” result, he said.
Safety precautions at the pop-up include all staff in full PPE, no patients exiting their vehicle and clipboards holding forms being sanitized between each use, Slatton said.
For those who can’t make it to the pop-up events, Healthy Connections clinics are also offering COVID-19 testing, as well as antibody testing.
“The clinic is a little bit different,” Slatton said. “It should still be at no cost to the patient, but if you come to the clinic we are going to run your insurance and do things like that. Now Healthy Connections also has a program in place for people without health insurance; we have a sliding fee scale. It’s very possible that those who came without insurance to the clinic would qualify for that.”
Medicaid, ARKids 1st, Medicare and most private health insurance is accepted.
Call 888-710-8220 for clinic appointments and locations.