Coastal Health District looking for ways to make COVID testing more efficient

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) - As COVID numbers are trending down, the Coastal Health District is looking at ways to make testing more efficient for residents and their employees.

Now that there are four COVID 19 testing kiosks across Coastal Georgia, the Coastal Health District is looking at which drive-up COVID 19 testing sites are still necessary. The first one that will be closing is the site in Glynn County.

“The demand for the testing has dropped off significantly.”

Officials have said the kiosks will help free up employee resources used to operate these testing sites.

Most drive-up sites will still be up for the near future. However, Dr. Lawton Davis at the Coastal Health District says ultimately their goal is to rely on these kiosks for PCR testing and get rid of majority of the testing sites.

He also points out you can get free at home antigen COVID tests from any health department in Southeast Georgia.

As many are on the lookout for another COVID surge, Dr. Davis says they aren’t ready to close multiple sites at this time.

“We try to balance the two. You don’t want to send everybody home and they find different jobs and then next month all of sudden ‘oops’ but that’s also apart of the reason for putting the kiosk out and we have more coming,” Dr. Lawton Davis said.

He says the next kiosk to open is expected to be in Liberty County.

The last day to get tested for COVID at Gynn County drive-up site will be this Saturday.

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