State health officials on Monday opened all COVID-19 testing sites operated by OptumServe to anyone who wants to get tested for the new coronavirus.
The tests are free for people of all ages — including children and those who are not experiencing any symptoms or considered to be at a high risk for COVID-19, said Indiana State Health Commissioner Dr. Kristina Box in a press briefing.
Tests must be scheduled in advance by calling 888-634-1116 or visiting lhi.care/covidtesting, according to the Indiana State Department of Health.
The testing site run by OptumServe in Bartholomew County is located at 2160 Arnold St. near Columbus Municipal Airport. Other nearby OptumServe testing sites are located at 550 Miller Lane in Seymour, 325 Minuteman Way in Franklin and 119 E. Railroad St. in Greensburg.
Previously, testing in Indiana was restricted to people with symptoms consistent with COVID-19 due to a critical shortage of testing supplies across the country.
“We recognize that this is a significant change from our focus on high-risk individuals and those who are symptomatic, but our testing capacity has improved significantly since the start of this pandemic and we want Hoosiers to take advantage of that,” Box said.
Dr. Brian Niedbalski, Bartholomew County health officer said he didn’t think it is imperative that everyone gets tested.”If someone is interested in knowing, then they should feel free to get tested,” he said. “If you have symptoms of COVID-19, then you still need to get tested. If you are at high risk due to being over the age over of 65, have diabetes, high blood pressure, are obese, or if you are a member of a minority population at increased risk, then you should strongly consider being tested, even without symptoms.”
On Monday, state health officials reported that an 533 additional Hoosiers have been diagnosed with COVID-19 through testing at ISDH, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and private laboratories, raising the total to 40,430 Indiana residents known to have the novel coronavirus.
A total of 2,251 Hoosiers are confirmed to have died from COVID-19, according to ISDH. Another 182 probable deaths have been reported based on clinical diagnoses in patients for whom no positive test is on record.
Bartholomew County is reporting a total 554 positive cases with 41 deaths.
An additional five Bartholomew County residents have visited an emergency room for COVID-19 over the past 10 days, with at least five additional hospitalizations, raising the total to 165 emergency room visits and 93 hospitalizations due to the new coronavirus since early March, according to the Regenstrief Institute.
The institute publishes county-level hospitalization data based on patients’ county of residence, which is not necessarily the county in which they were hospitalized.
ISDH also has started providing data on the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases by zip code. In Bartholomew County, the 47201 zip code had the most confirmed cases, with 307, followed by the 47203 zip code with 173.
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”How to schedule a test” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
Call 888-634-1116 or visit lhi.care/covidtesting to register and schedule a COVID-19 test.
[sc:pullout-text-end]
