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Lexington doctor conducts city's first COVID-19 drive-up testing

Posted at 3:26 PM, Mar 19, 2020
and last updated 2020-03-20 20:22:13-04

LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — A Lexington doctor conducted the city’s first drive-up coronavirus testing on Friday.

Dr. John Richard tells LEX 18 that he and his staff tested 94 people at Bluegrass Extended Care Medicine.

Those who were tested either had to have symptoms (fever, dry cough, chest tightness, trouble breathing) or have been exposed to a COVID-19 patient.

Dr. Richard said he expects to have results from Solaris Diagnostics within 24-36 hours.

Solaris Diagnostics is an accredited lab testing facility in Nicholasville, Kentucky, that serves clinicians and health care providers.

“The availability of reliable diagnostic tests is a crucial part of the response to control the spread of the virus,” said Dr. Preetpal Sidhu, CEO at Solaris Diagnostics.

The laboratory began testing for COVID-19 on Monday, March 16.

“Our laboratory has made sufficient preparation to ensure the speed and continued operability of our COVID-19 testing for the foreseeable future,” said John Drury, Director of Operation at Solaris Diagnostics.