DE PERE, WI (WTAQ) – Prevea Health is opening a COVID-19 testing site at the Brown County Fairgrounds next week.
The testing site opening on Monday will feature a covered, two-lane drive-through, allowing patients to remain in their vehicles during the test collection process. But it’s also about keeping staff and patients safe from Jack Frost.
“We live in Wisconsin, we need a better way to test people when it starts snowing,” said Prevea Health CEO Dr. Ashok Rai. “Given our percent positivity in town, we didn’t want to back off on any testing. We were worried about the elements, and were really worried about our people to that are out there working those sites. As it gets icy and slippery, we wanted to make sure that we were doing everything safe.”
The site is expected to consolidate testing, and handle the combined volume of the four current sites across the area.
Prevea worked with De Pere Fire, De Pere Police, local inspectors, and Brown County officials to obtain a lease for part of the land. Rai says it was no short task to put things together.
“The fairgrounds kept coming up as a winner because we could drive through there and somewhat customize it to ourselves and handle all of the volume we’re seeing at our other sites at one site,” Rai told WTAQ News. “Lease the land and then build an extra driveway and start to remodel the inside of that for heating and air exchange and to be able to drive people through it and get snow removal all set up…From the people that did the new HVAC to running all the fiber out there, a lot of different businesses were called upon very quickly to help put this together – and all of those contractors came through for us.”
Anyone who wants to get tested can be tested at the site. At least at the beginning.
“For a short time, we’re testing everybody just to do some surveillance testing. So it doesn’t matter if you have symptoms or not,” Rai said.
However, anyone wishing to be tested must sign up on the MyPrevea portal ahead of time. You do not have to be a current Prevea patient to set up an account. Once that is completed, the process is fairly straightforward.
“Go through a couple questions and schedule an appointment so we have people showing up throughout the day and not all at one time,” Rai said. “There will be a ton of signs directing you into the building. You’ll divide out into two separate lanes, so people can test on both sides of the building. And then you’ll exit and your results should be in your email or called to you within anywhere from 2-4 days.”
Rai adds that it’s usually a two day turnaround unless there is a delivery issue or a winter storm causes delays.
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