Health Care Providers Report Surge In People Wanting COVID Tests

Testing sites around the Tulsa area are expecting a busy week expect with many people testing after holiday travel. The people administering tests for Saint Francis Hospital say they're seeing more people, and more of them are positive than they've had in the last few months.

Tuesday, December 28th 2021, 6:20 pm

By: Emory Bryan

TULSA, Oklahoma -

Covid testing services are noticing a continuing increase in business that started before Christmas. Even though some at-home testing is available, drive-in clinics are busy with people worried about contact with an infected person, or who have symptoms that indicate Covid.

Axis Health Care, in Bixby, was busy Tuesday with mostly symptomatic people waiting for a diagnosis.

“We started seeing an increase in testing with the variant spiking and now, it's about three times the testing that we normally do, ” Michael Sanchez an administrator for Axis

Christie Thompson said of patients visiting the urgent care, “We've seen a 10 - 15% increase in positive cases of Covid, and the majority of those patients are actively sick, actively ill.” Thompson said about 25% of the patients they test are positive for Covid.

Last winter, cases that were reported around Christmas led to a wave of hospitalizations in January.