OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – If you’re having trouble finding a COVID-19 test, Diagnostic Laboratory of Oklahoma can be an option to get one. IMMY Labs has also announced they’re planning to start drive-thru testing soon.
DLO offers drive-thru testing. While they’ve done COVID testing throughout the pandemic, they started the drive-thru in August as cases started to rise again. They have both PCR and rapid antigen tests.
“When we first stood it up, first part of August, the demand was extremely high. It had remained high. Last week it dropped off a little bit,” R’Nee Mullen, CEO of DLO, said. “We’re certainly expecting with all the community events that are happening, everybody getting back together, that will come back in terms of people needing testing and especially with potential mandates of employers and those types of things.”
The test is free and doesn’t require a doctor’s order. You can get PCR test results in 24 hours and about 20 minutes for rapid tests.
“When we were starting to get the initial cry from the community, if you will, about, ‘we need places to go to get collected, to get tested, we can’t find an appointment, lines are too long, wait times are too long,’ etc. So we decided to stand up an event here as a drive-thru so patients can come here, they can be collected, and literally we’re taking those samples into the laboratory, processing it, putting it in queue to be tested,” Mullen said.
Appointments are required, and you can be in and out in five minutes.
“We were getting phone calls from parents with children that they needed to have tested from an exposure, we were getting calls from providers that their patients were needing somewhere to be collected, and they couldn’t find an appointment anywhere,” Mullen said. “We just sat down and felt like, you know, we’ve got the resources, and we feel like as a healthcare provider, we owe that to the community to try to meet that need.”
DLO is located at 225 NE 97th Street in Oklahoma City. The drive-thru hours are Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. and on Saturday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
You can make an appointment by clicking here.
The State Health Department says they’re working to find more places people can get tested.
“We have also reengaged our partnership with IMMY Labs to increase access points to testing,” Keith Reed, Deputy Commissioner of Health, said. “We appreciated Oklahomans proactively seeking testing if they experience common COVID-19 symptoms and encourage everyone to continue doing so. OSDH will continue to look for opportunities to work with our partners to find solutions that ensure you will have access to testing and vaccination when you need it.”
In a tweet, IMMY Labs says they are working through details to restart testing, and the tentative plan is to reopen drive-thru testing by the end of next week. Appointments are not currently available.