Laverty Pathology: Drive through COVID-19 clinic opens at Club Macquarie Argenton
COVID-19 testing continues to ramp up in the Hunter with another drive-through clinic opening today in Lake Macquarie. Laverty Pathology making it easier for people to get tested.
Newcastle
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A new drive-through COVID-19 clinic in Lake Macquarie – which opened on Monday morning – will aid in testing thousands more people for the virus across NSW.
Laverty Pathology is further extending its network to make it easier for more people to get tested as lockdown restrictions begin to ease.
Especially come Friday, when more businesses are allowed to again open up their doors and the green light will be given for more people to venture out and about.
In addition to a drive-through clinic already established at McDonald Jones Stadium until this Sunday, Laverty Pathology has opened up another screening clinic at Club Macquarie in Argenton.
“We have the opportunity from a public health point of view to open these clinics in various places and I guess the more the merrier, making it easier for testing to occur,” Laverty Pathology, head microbiologist, Dr. Juliette Holland said.
“We’re ramping up our testing, currently doing around 2,000 plus a day but we have got new instrumentation in which will allow us to do a lot more, up to 10,000 a day.”
No appointment is needed, but people must have a pathology request from their doctor so they can drive straight through for a collection of a swab specimen.
“They’ll need to park and they have a swab which goes to the back of the nose into the pharynx area, it’s labelled, sent down to the lab,” Dr. Holland added.
“The test involves looking for RNA, which is the nucleic acid, for genetic material of the virus and if that’s detected it is a positive result.”
The technology is very similar to how the flu is detected, where genetic material is extracted and then amplified.
The laboratory aims for a fairly rapid turnaround of results, ideally in the 24 hour period, depending on the amount of samples that come in that day.
Patients can elect to have negative results sent to them via SMS. Those with positive results will be notified by their GP.
Patients must remain in their vehicles at all times while a collector in full protective equipment will perform the test. A Medicare care and ID is also required.
The drive-through facility is located at Club Macquarie, 458 Lake Road, Argenton and is open from 8am to 4pm Monday to Friday and from 8am to 1pm on Saturday.