Clinics Report Increase In COVID-19 Testing For Children

More people are seeking out testing for COVID-19, especially for children, according to the staff at several test sites in Tulsa.

The staff at Axis Healthcare says they are testing 300 samples a day, which is three times as many people as they were testing each day just a few weeks ago.

An administrator at Saint Francis Health System reported Friday they were testing 1,000 people per day, and Tuesday, at their main testing site in Broken Arrow, the clinic had added capacity but the wait was up to two hours to get into a drive-thru testing site.

Axis Health, in Bixby, had waves of people coming for testing, and staff said they believed more people being tested had symptoms, and more of their tests were coming back positive. It takes several days for the numbers of positive tests to go from the clinic level to the state reporting system.

“We are actually seeing more COVID testing right now than we did when we first started this,” said Krista N’Gom, with Axis Health. “Our testing is up 300%.”

Kaci Henson, the parent of a Bixby student, is sure her daughter has it and thinks she might as well. “My daughter was exposed yesterday at Bixby Middle School. We got a notification she was exposed. She’s symptomatic, pretty congested, and warm to the touch” said Henson.

The clinic also does pre-travel testing, and antibody testing, for people wondering if they have some immunity from a past infection, or if their vaccination is still generating antibodies. Axis is processing tests in their own lab and returning results the next day. N’Gom says the clinic's physicians are counting on quick notification so people can quarantine and stop the spread.