The Christian County Health Department has permanently closed its drive-thru COVID-19 test site at Tie Breaker Park, the department announced Monday on its coronavirus information website.
Testing will shift to the health department’s office on Canton Street. Testing will be done — by appointment — from 9 to 11 a.m. every Monday and Wednesday. Appointments may be scheduled by calling 270-887-4160, ext. 133.
Local officials decided to close the drive-thru site because fewer people were using it, department spokeswoman Amanda Sweeney Brunt told Hoptown Chronicle. Fewer than 50 people used the drive-thru site the last few times it was open, she estimated.
“We are able to provide testing here at the office for the quantity of participants we were seeing at the test site,” she said.
The health department will continue to use the polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, test it provided at Tie Breaker. Results are usually returned in 48 to 72 hours.
The state will continue to provide the testing kits to the health department, said Sweeney Brunt.
The health department opened its drive-thru site on April 20, and initially it operated Monday through Friday.
The first drive-thru COVID-19 test site in Hopkinsville was at Jennie Stuart’s Express Lab on Eagle Way. It opened in late March and operated for several weeks.
Jennie Stuart Health now also offers COVID-19 testing by appointment at its JennieCare clinic off Fort Campbell Boulevard at Eagle Way in the Blue Creek South Medical Park. JennieCare provides rapid tests, which are only recommended for individuals who are symptomatic. Specimens are collected from the patient while they remain in their vehicle, and results are given before the patient leaves.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
