Great Lakes Bay Regional Outpatient COVID-19 TESTING Sites

The Saginaw County Health Department and public health system partners is offering outpatient sampling and screening sites offering COVID-19 testing to people with a lab order from their doctor or health care provider.

If someone is experiencing fever, cough, and shortness of breath they need to contact their health care provider for possible testing. Healthcare providers will be assessing patients for risk factors and providing direction on where they can be tested.

Here is a breakdown on the Testing Sites Available in Saginaw, Bay & Midland Counties:

SAGINAW •

Great Lakes Bay Health Centeris testing in the parking lot of the David R. GamezCommunity Health Centerlocated at 501 Lapeer Streetin Saginaw. Hours of operation will be Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., or until testing supplies run out each day.

Covenant offers  testing at the Visiting Nurses Association, 502 S. Hamilton Street in Saginaw from8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., 7 days a week.

The State of Michigan is offering another outpatient sampling and screening site in Saginaw. Patients referred by their provider to this location will receive the address on their lab order form. This location will be open 7 days a week from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. by appointment only.

Dr. Delicia Pruitt, MD, Medical Director of the Saginaw County Health Department says, “We are trying to expand the number of tests offered in the community to better determine the spread of disease. Health Department staff and our public health system partners will conduct contact tracing and monitoring for positive COVID-19 individuals and their contacts. Contact tracing helps make possible earlier diagnosis (often within 72 hours) and getting care to people who need it. 

The Health Department’s COVID-19 informational hotline is also available at (989) 758-3828.

BAY COUNTY • 

McLaren Hospital is offering coronavirus screenings on the McLarenNow telehealth site to help protect patients and reduce the spread of infection. To access McLarenNow, visit www.mclaren.org and click “Virtual Care”. The cost is $29. 

For patients coming to the Emergency Department, an external tent is in operation outside of the McLaren Bay Region Emergency Department entrance for patients to be screened prior to entering. This will limit exposure for the patient population and assist in keeping staff safe.

MIDLAND COUNTY • 

MidMichigan Health is setting up COVID-19 testing tents in its parking lots and other mid-Michigan area hospitals are planning their next moves to combat coronavirus and slow its spread.

In addition, previously announced and previously implemented travel screenings at patient registration areas and visitor restrictions will remain in place. The restrictions allow only those visitors who are healthy, without symptoms of illness, to visit patients at MidMichigan’s Medical Centers in Alpena, Clare, Gladwin, Gratiot, Midland, Mount Pleasant and West Branch.

Social Distancing Is Not Enough

As the United States continues to struggle to ramp up basic testing for COVID-19, experts at the World Health Organization  emphasized that countries should prioritize such testing—and that social-distancing measures are not enough.

“We have a simple message for all countries: test, test, test,” WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (aka Dr. Tedros) said in a press briefing.

Dr. Tedros noted that, as the numbers of cases and deaths outside of China have quickly risen, many countries—including the US—have urgently adopted so-called social-distancing measures, such as shuttering schools, canceling events, and having people work from home. While these measures can slow transmission and allow health care systems to better cope, they are “not enough to extinguish this pandemic,” Dr. Tedros warned.

What’s needed is a comprehensive approach, he said. “But we have not seen an urgent-enough escalation in testing, isolation and contact tracing, which is the backbone of the response,” Dr. Tedros said.

“The most effective way to prevent infections and save lives is breaking the chains of transmission,” he went on. “And to do that, you must test and isolate. You cannot fight a fire blindfolded. And we cannot stop this pandemic if we don’t know who is infected.”