Dare County will hold a COVID-19 diagnostic and antibody testing clinic Tuesday, June 30, starting at 10 a.m., at the county’s Parks & Recreations facility in Kill Devil Hills, according to a bulletin posted today on the Dept. of Health and Human Services’ website.
Dare County residents who are age 10 or older and asymptomatic may register for an appointment for either or both tests, the bulletin advises. All registrants will be required to send a photocopy of a government-issued identification card and an insurance card, if they have one, to the county before the event.
You need not have insurance to register for a test.
The telephone number to call for an appointment is (252) 475-5008, starting tomorrow. The call center is open Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Dare County is partnering with Mako Medical Laboratories of Raleigh on this event.
The Parks & Recreation facility is located at 602 Mustian St., down the street from the Thomas A. Baum Senior Center and behind the Brewing Station restaurant parking lot.
Those who register for the nasal-swab diagnostic test will stay in their vehicles and be seen on a drive-thru basis. A registrant for the antibody test must come into the Parks & Rec building and have his/her temperature taken and a blood sample drawn.
A diagnostic test determines if a person currently has a COVID-19 infection, while an antibody test determines if a person has had a COVID-19 infection and recovered.
The DCDHHS further advises that a positive antibody test “does not mean an individual has immunity to future COVID-19 infections.”
The tests are not free, but people with insurance “will not incur any out-of-pocket cost,” according to today’s bulletin, because “the COVID-19 test is completely covered” by all insurance providers, including Medicaid and Medicare.
Mako Medical Labs will cover the costs of people without insurance who seek diagnostic testing by using COVID-19 Relief Fund monies, the bulletin advises. Mako will “work with” uninsured people who would like to undergo antibody testing.
More information will be provided about cost coverage “when individuals call to register for an appointment,” according to today’s release.
The results of both tests will be provided to people within 72 hours.
The DCDHHS also advises participants in the testing event to “understand they are coming to a community-based testing site located in a public location and therefore patient privacy cannot be assured.” But all results, it says, will be confidential.
Ann G. Sjoerdsma, 6/18/20
The Southern Shores Beacon 