ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Two weeks after the first two confirmed cases of COVID-19 for the State of Florida and the Tampa Bay area, testing is expanding.
It is important to remember that if you have symptoms and believe you have been exposed to COVID-19 through travel or being in close contact with someone who has COVID-19, you should first call your doctor or the health department. Calling ahead will allow the hospital or local health department to prepare and give you guidance.
Symptoms include fever, cough or shortness of breath.
Local health departments will screen you; and if you need to be tested, they say they’re able to have workers do “drive-up” testing, so that you don’t expose others. If you are tested, you are obligated to self-isolate.
In addition to health departments and the state labs running those tests, Tampa General Hospital is now able to test in-house.
TGH has developed a modified form of the COVID-19 test. Testing is limited to those who meet criteria defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and is for team members, physicians and patients.
If you have symptoms and believe you may have been exposed to COVID-19 via travel or someone you know, you should first call your doctor.
AdventHealth West Florida Division has created three “access sites” in the greater Tampa Bay area. You must be referred by an AdventHealth doctor. That includes through a virtual visit.
“This allows our physicians to screen patients and then refer them to a site for testing. The patient doesn’t need to come to the doctor’s office, which limits exposure to other people in the community. It also limits potential exposure to team members at the physician’s office,” a spokesperson said.
AdventHealth says the testing locations also allow for couriers to collect samples, which are sent out to commercial sites like LabCorp.
Sarasota Memorial Health Systems and Bay Pines VA Healthcare System can also take samples and send those off for testing through commercial labs like LabCorp and Quest Diagnostics.
Hospitals say those results typically take longer than the state department of health labs, which can return results in Tampa Bay within 48 hours.
Health officials, both public and private, say they are following criteria and not everyone will be tested.
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