Big Tree Medical Home provides COVID-19 testing for patients meeting CDC guidelines
COLUMBIA — A small shipment of coronavirus test kits is on their way Thursday to a Columbia health care provider. The twenty coronavirus test kits headed to Big Tree Medical Home are for patients meeting CDC guidelines. The actual testing will not take place in Columbia. Big Tree Medical Home doctors will use testing kits to collect swab samples.
Collecting a swab sample for a coronavirus test kit only takes a few seconds. Doctors put a long cotton swab inside a patient’s nose to collect a test sample. Test results are available within 2 to 7 days. Big Tree Medical Home doctors must use California testing facilities even though testing facilities in Jefferson City are much closer. Doctors must use the testing company that provides the test kits.
Big Tree Medical Home Dr. Helena Galstian said, “A 2-day turnaround time is pretty quick. I think as time goes on, we’re going to get more supplies. As time goes on, we’ll get more access to things. This is all very, very new.”
Coronavirus symptoms included fever, cough and difficulty breathing. Someone in close contact with a person known to have COVID-19 or have recently traveled from an area with the ongoing spread of COVID-19 were also eligible for testing.
Dr. Galstian said, “Not a lot of places have the kits. This is very, very new. As time goes on, we’ll start getting more. At this time, we only have 20 kits.”
Big Tree Medical Home doctors planned to offer coronavirus testing within the next week.
