Drive-Through Coronavirus Testing Coming To Hillsborough

Officials with Hillsborough County and the city of Tampa have been identifying locations to open drive-through testing sites for coronavirus.

At a Tuesday morning news conference, Hillsborough County Administrator Mike Merrill said testing for coronavirus in a drive-through helps protect healthcare workers and allows them to get an efficient collection sample.

"The other advantage of a drive-through is the healthcare workers who are collecting the samples don't have to change their protective gear every time they see a patient because they're driving through and they're just doing the tests one right after the other," said Merrill.

There's a shortage of protective gear right now, so he said this will help to solve that "big problem."

Merrill adds the goal is to open these coronavirus drive-through testing sites by Friday.

Although, they could be available as early as Wednesday.

Copyright 2020 WUSF Public Media - WUSF 89.7