New COVID-19 tests coming to Lee County

OPELIKA, Ala. (WSFA) - By the end of the week, Stopwatch Urgent Care in Opelika will have a new COVID-19 test.

“The test that we are going to receive is going to actually work via finger prick,”said Stopwatch Urgent Care Chief Medical Officer Dr. Kyle Adams.

The test most commonly used right now requires a long, deep nasal swab, and results take a couple of days.

“The tests that are mostly being used right now are done with a nasal swab, and what they’re doing is they’re going off to a lab at another location and that can be in a different state oftentimes," said Adams. “So they have to be shipped out, and they are checking the nasal mucus that’s collected for viral DNA or RNA.”

This new test uses a blood sample and will produce results in about 15 minutes.

“It’s just now being released on the market. We’ll be able to prick our patients’ fingers and use a small cassette to test that blood for antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 virus that cause COVID-19 and get a positive or negative result within 15 minutes,” said Adams. “We’ll have patients ideally sign in online or call in prior to coming so we can go ahead and get them registered. Then when they arrive, we will actually have medical assistant and a provider whether that be a physician or a nurse practitioner or a PA in the tent that will see the patient, collect their vitals, collect the COVID-19 tests and examine the patient and the results will be known either before the patient leaves that tent or within minutes afterward and we’re able to call them back and give them give them their results.”

He also said that getting quicker results should make a major difference.

“When we’re able to get the results back quickly, we can give patients advice," he said. "We can know when it’s OK for a patient to go back to work or go care for their elderly grandparents. Things like that with this rapid test capability it makes it much easier for us and it’s really better for all of our patients, because we can give them some some good information right up front.”

Officials at the East Alabama Medical Center, where most of the testing for Lee County is done, say they also plan to introduce a new COVID- 19 test this month that should produce quicker results.