Beaufort Co. hospitals offer free outpatient COVID-19 testing
Hilton Head and Coastal Carolina hospitals will no longer require a doctors’ order for free drive thru COVID-19 testing.
The policy went into effect Tuesday. No appointments are needed. The outpatient testing will be available to residents from 8 a.m. to noon Monday through Friday.
A “pop-up” coronavirus testing clinic originally scheduled at Hilton Head Island High School on Wednesday was replaced by the free outpatient option, according to Daisy Burroughs, a spokesperson for Tenet Healthcare, which owns the two hospitals.
In a statement Friday, Burroughs wrote that the medical centers were on track to test more people this week than they did at each of the system’s three pop-up events in August.
Outpatient test results are expected within 72 hours.
The announcement comes as new data show that fewer people in Beaufort County are getting tested for COVID-19.
The county’s seven-day average of newly reported COVID-19 test results has fallen to a level last seen in early June, according to the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control.
For example, the Wednesday average sat at about 212 molecular, antibody or “unknown” test results received in the county per day.
The county’s seven-day average hasn’t been that low since June 9, when it stood at roughly 201.
Widespread COVID-19 testing is critical to identifying both symptomatic and asymptomatic carriers of the coronavirus, health officials say.
Because people can spread the deadly pathogen without feeling sick, testing is one of the few ways DHEC can squelch future outbreaks.
Dr. Brannon Traxler, a DHEC physician consultant, is urging residents to get tested even if they have mild symptoms or think they just have allergies, considering the high percentage of positive tests in South Carolina.
