The Cayuga County Health Department is telling residents to avoid going to one of the region’s most popular urgent care chains if they need a COVID-19 test.
Positive results are required to be reported within 24 hours. However, officials say WellNow isn’t doing that.
“When we are not getting positive results in a timely manner, we’re not able to investigate and isolate the positive people,” Deanna Ryan, a senior public health educator, said during the meeting. “And then we’re also not able to track back to their infectious period and get contacts into quarantine.”
A spokesperson for WellNow said that test results are reported to the state’s electronic clinical lab system. They contend that less than 1% of all processed COVID tests are delayed. “We take patient privacy very seriously and cannot comment on individual patient results or experiences; however, we encourage any patients and health officials with specific questions or concerns to contact us directly,” the spokesperson told The Citizen.
Cuddy, like other health officials in Cayuga County, advised the public go to a hospital-owned urgent care center, or private practice for testing.
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