Drive-through coronavirus testing center to open in five counties
Drive-through coronavirus testing points will to open in the Paide, Rakvere, Haapsalu, Jõgeva and Valga in the coming days.
On Thursday, new testing points will open in Paide, Rakvere and Jõgeva. On Friday a testing point in Haapsalu will be added, while the testing point in Valga will start working early next week, the medical services company Synlab announced.
People connected with the testing network come from seven private sector medical companies and three hospitals.
In Tallinn and Rakvere samples are taken by employees of Medicum. In Tartu, Viljandi, Pärnu, Haapsalu, Paide, Jõgeva and Valga sampling is done by personnel from Qvalitas, while Corrigo is seeing to the collection of samples in Narva and the Ida-Viru Central Hospital in Kõhtla-Jarve.
In the island capitals of Kuressaare and Kardla personnel from the local hospitals are manning the sampling points. The companies Fertilitas, Alre and Elred are helping crews taking samples from patients in their homes.
Approximately 24,000 people have been tested already in the nationwide network based on referrals from family doctors. The network of drive-through sampling points was created on March 19.
Residents who cannot go to a sampling point by car can have a sample taken in their home.
Testing intensity has been highest at the sampling points in Tallinn and Tartu, with nasopharyngeal taken samples from about 7,500 people in both cities to date.
Qvalitas health buses, operated by over 20 specially trained nurses and auxiliary personnel, will be collecting samples in seven towns and cities, visiting each of the towns at specific intervals.
To get a referral to testing, people must contact their family doctor first.
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Editor: Helen Wright