LORAIN, Ohio — Communities across Ohio are scrambling to get their residents access to COVID-19 tests before the holidays end.
Lorain County Health & Dentistry it will have a drive-through COVID-19 testing event that starts 7:30 a.m. Friday. You do not need a doctor’s order and tests will be first-come, first-served. The testing is free and you will know your results within 30 minutes.
If past events are any indication, demand will be high.
Judy Cilona has seen plenty of lines when Lorain County Health and Dentistry has hosted drive-through testing events.
“Last year, the headlights went as far as I could see down Broadway,” said Cilona.
Cilona is the director of quality management for Lorain County Health and Dentistry, where she’s spent the last 11 years. The health care organization has been innovative during the pandemic, like turning a vacant empty floor into a vaccine clinic.
“We’ve had to imagine things that are unimaginable; we’ve had to make things work that we wouldn’t even consider prior to COVID. And fortunately, it’s all worked out,” said Cilona.
But it doesn’t stop there. A conference room has been used as a call center, but recently, leaders have been using it for its regular purpose as Cilona talks with other leaders about Friday’s testing event.
“We’re hoping that they can come through this testing event and have peace of mind that they’re positive or negative and perhaps not go through with their New Year’s Eve plans if they are positive,” said Cilona.
She met with CEO Stephanie Wiersma and COO Troy Chaffin, who say they’ve done this in the past, and have the inventory to pull off a mass drive-through testing site.
“Even when testing demand fell off this past summer, this past fall, we continued to purchase rapid test kits,” said Chaffin.
The tests are heavily in demand.
“Our schedules are full, and hence, we can’t help the folks that are calling to get tests now. And so the rapid testing event on Friday I think will make a great deal of difference,” said Wiersma.
A garage next to the center is another building converted to help with pandemic-related services. She hopes the tests given to those in the cars driving through will give people more peace of mind.
“It’s not our first rodeo; we’ve done several of these and sometimes it is to our advantage that we’re a small, tight team,” said Cilona, “So we just have a team that’s just ready to respond to whatever it is that the community needs.”
