Ascension Sacred Heart will restart COVID-19 testing drive-thru
PENSACOLA, Fla. (Dec. 29, 2021) – In response to an increase in coronavirus cases in the Pensacola area, Ascension Medical Group Sacred Heart will restart a drive-thru COVID-19 testing center on Tuesday, Jan. 4.
The drive-through will be open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 5192 Bayou Boulevard, Pensacola. No pre-registration or appointment is needed. The testing site will offer the traditional PCR swab test that will be sent to the hospital laboratory at Ascension Sacred Heart Pensacola. Lab results will be available in 24 hours.
Ascension Medical Group will bill a patient’s insurance if they have it, but the service will be provided with no out-of- pocket charges for the test. Those seeking a test should bring a valid form of identification and insurance card.
“We know the State of Florida is seeing unprecedented numbers of new COVID-19 cases and we expect the new Omicron variant will bring a rapid surge of cases into Northwest Florida in the weeks ahead,” said Justin Labrato, chief operating officer at Ascension Medical Group Sacred Heart. “Hospitalizations are starting to climb so we are responding again to a community need for more accessible testing. Testing can help to identify the virus early, slow the spread, and allow infected people to isolate and seek treatment as needed.”
Decisions about Ascension Sacred Heart’s testing beyond next week have not been made yet. The Ascension Sacred Heart team was among the first in Florida to open a drive-through testing site when the coronavirus first arrived in Pensacola in March 2020. The site continued to operate for 54 consecutive weeks. After ceasing operations when cases dropped later in 2021, Sacred Heart resumed its drive-through when Pensacola had its third and worst surge of the coronavirus during August and early September. At the height of the summer surge, the drive-through staff provided swab tests to more than 500 people in only four hours. In total, the drive-thru center has tested approximately 100,000 people.
Ascension Sacred Heart urges all eligible people to get vaccinated against COVID-19, and if you are eligible, to get the third booster shot. Health experts say the booster shot can greatly increase protection against severe illness, hospitalization and death from COVID-19. The Centers for Disease Prevention and Control also recommends wearing a mask in public indoor settings in areas of substantial or high community transmission, regardless of vaccination status.
Symptoms of COVID-19 include:
- > Severe fatigue or muscle or body aches
- > Fever or body chills
- > Cough
- > Sore throat
- > Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
- > Headache
- > Congestion or runny nose
- > Nausea or vomiting
- > Diarrhea
- > Loss of taste or smell
COVID-19 symptoms can resemble those of the common cold. Other infected patients have developed long-term symptoms such as crushing fatigue, irregular heart rhythms and other issues months after their initial Covid infection.
Yes, Guvnah Ron is MIA while Omicron does it’s thing. But the republicans/”indepenents” who have eschewed the vaccine are going to the hospital and in some cases, dying. Now they blame the surge on Biden when in fact it is their own ignorance and selfishness that has caused increased risks for those of us who vaccinated and boosted. Cult behavior from low information deplorables are causing unnecessary illness and death. MAGA idiots writ large.
From the time all adults became eligible to vaccinate, the US has averaged nearly 1000 deaths a day–90 percent of them unvaccinated.
2 days ago, the State of Florida racked up 46,923 new cases. We could be tracking at 75K, for all we know. Or for all your state government officials care.
DeSantis hasn’t made a public appearance in 13 days, with his team fake tweeting outdated appearances as if they were happening in real time.
Alex Andrade continues to crunch crooked data off of sites with real data and present the mal-information on his Facebook as evidence of what a great job Florida has done with covid. When people point out his data manipulation, he deletes their comments.
Escambia and Santa Rosa’s death rate has increased since the vaccines became eligible, with at least 90% of those deaths unvaccinated.
The Mayor has no interest in covid until the hospitals admit the covid cases are at 50, which they are probably already at if the truth be told, given their past track record for honesty and transparency. Keith Wilkins is officially retired from the City, so we have lost that profile in quiet leadership courage to go to bat for us.
Other than Commissioner May, the BOCC is nowhere on covid, and one can only assume will continue to be nowhere, other than to tacitly or explicitly continue to condone dangerous conspiracy theories that assist in fostering a high rate and amount of community spread.
The most rabid of the local anti vaxxers have made the inevitable leap Russia has been pulling them towards all along, overtly marrying their conspiracy theory that they don’t need the vaccine with their white supremacist beliefs centered on their superior, “pure” blood lines.
The PNJ rises to the occasion per usual by continuing its practice of juxtaposing two schizophrenic headlines, “Pensacola to resume drive-thru COVID testing due to omicron” and “Our giant list of New Year’s Eve parties and Events.”
No word on where to go for DeSantis’s overhyped monoclonal antibody program (because the answer is Fort Walton, you Escambia and Santa Rosa schmucks), but get your red-hot Gannet hypocrisy to find out how to most effectively spread covid at bars, symphonies, and indoor concerts. Love in the Time of Cholera, folks. Maybe we can get the ghost of Neruda in for a ConTown event coming to us soon.
There is also a nasty upper respiratory infection going around town. It is not pleasant. I had it. Today is the first day in ten that I feel “human.” I know of several people in my neighborhood who had it too. I had some of the above symptoms and a hoarse voice. I did not have COVID-19 or the flu. I mention this because if you are sick and test Negative for COVID-19 you might have the upper respiratory infection or the flu. Be smart. See a doctor.