New drive-up testing sites open

Polis says people who are tested should get results in two to four days

Two new drive-up COVID-19 testing sites opened on Monday in the metro area, with promises of quicker results.

Officials from the state, the city of Aurora and Adams and Arapahoe counties announced two new locations, at the Aurora Sports Park and Water World in Federal Heights. A third site “further south” will be announced later this week, Gov. Jared Polis said.

The additional testing sites open as the number of new COVID-19 cases in Colorado dropped for the second week in a row.

Polis estimated people who are tested will receive their results in two to four days. The company that will perform the testing, North Carolina-based MAKO Medical, isn’t the same lab responsible for the Pepsi Center site. Some people have reported waiting a week or longer for their results after being tested at Pepsi Center, because LabCorp’s capacity was overwhelmed by surging outbreaks in multiple states.

Some people didn’t go to get tested after they heard the results could be delayed long enough to be essentially useless, Polis said. The new sites, with quicker turnaround times, were meant to encourage them to come out, he said.

“This is a war, and intelligence is critical,” he said. “If we are going to defeat this virus, we need to act quickly, rather than let it creep up on us in stealth mode.”

Both sites will be open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. Testing is free to anyone, with or without symptoms. Those who get tested aren’t required to show identification or insurance coverage, Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman said.

John Douglas, executive director of Tri-County Health Department, said the sites use a PCR test, which is the “gold standard.” People who have symptoms should get tested as soon as possible, and those who were exposed to the virus should be tested about a week after the exposure, he said.

The health department will call people who test positive and ask them questions to determine where they might have been exposed, and if other people could be at risk, Douglas said.

“Testing is a critical tool,” he said.

Although new COVID-19 cases dropped for a second week, they have a long way to fall before reaching the record low set in June.

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment reported 2,730 cases of the new coronavirus in the week that ended Sunday. That’s down from a high of 4,001 cases two weeks earlier, but still well above the low of

1,136 reached in mid-June.

New daily cases have generally trended down since late July. For reasons that aren’t totally clear, there was a spike in people reporting symptoms of the virus on July 6, and two weeks later on July 20. Experts have suggested the pattern may have been due to people relaxing their social distancing precautions as Colorado saw fewer cases, then buckling down again as the situation deteriorated. The Colorado Hospital Association reported 185 people were hospitalized on Monday, which was the lowest total since July 8. Hospitalizations had hit their lowest level, 126, in late June then rose through midJuly before turning downward again.

Seven COVID-19 deaths were recorded in the week ending Sunday, though the total likely will increase as delayed reports come in. Deaths had hit their low point — 15 — in the week ending July 5, then doubled and hovered around 30 for each of the next four weeks.

An average of 2.8% of coronavirus tests were positive over the last three days — well within the range experts consider acceptable.

Since March, the state has recorded 51,039 cases of the virus and 6,627 hospitalizations. A total of 1,746 people have died of the virus, and 117 have died with it.

Polis urged the public to continue taking precautions such as wearing masks and avoiding crowded events where the virus could spread among large numbers of people.

“What might be minor to you might be deadly to your spouse, or your sister, or your friend,” he said.

Coffman was the Aurora site’s first patient, at about 10:15 a.m., and Polis and several Adams County commissioners got tested at the Water World site. The new sites use a method that swabs the inside of each nostril, but doesn’t require going as far into the nose as some tests.

People who want to be tested are encouraged to sign up online, though those who don’t have internet access can register on-site. Materials are available in Farsi, Hmong and Spanish, as well as English at the Water World location. Masks are required at both sites.