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Nuvance Health to decommission COVID-19 drive-through specimen collection sites

Nuvance Health will be transitioning its COVID-19 drive-through specimen collection sites in Connecticut and New York to onsite locations throughout the system.

Since mid-March, there were over 47,600 total specimens collected at four drive-through sites.  Nuvance Health Medical Practices president Dr. Chris Lehrach says nearly 20,000 of those were collected at Danbury Hospital.

Nuvance Health will use a nasal swab to collect specimen samples for a test. A nasal swab is less invasive and causes less patient discomfort when compared to a nasopharyngeal swab. Patients can self-administer the nasal swab but a healthcare professional will assist those who cannot.

Nuvance Health will decommission the drive-through collection site at Danbury and Norwalk Hospitals on July 4, though the Norwalk date is subject to change.

Lehrach says the drive-through sites were set up to provide residents and patients convenient and safe access to COVID-19 testing during the height of the pandemic.  As Connecticut observes a decrease in new infections, Nuvance will continue to provide access to testing at locations throughout the health system.  But the steady decrease prompted Nuvance Health to consider how to provide patients with expedient access to COVID-19 testing as it resumes more procedures, surgeries, and routine health care at its hospitals, medical practices, and outpatient facilities.

COVID-19 testing will be available at Nuvance Health Medical Practices’ primary care locations in Connecticut and New York for new or existing patients experiencing COVID-19 symptoms, or patients previously confirmed positive who require clearance to return to work. Patients who want a COVID-19 test are asked to first schedule a Virtual Visit with a primary care clinician. 

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Dave Rinelli

Local Headlines