Medicine Hat pharmacies offering asymptomatic COVID testing

Only those who have no symptoms and no known exposure to COVID-19 can be tested at participating pharmacies.

If asymptomatic testing is still a possibility after the initial screening, an appointment will be scheduled within a couple of days

Winston says that once a person is in the pharmacy the whole process will take about five minutes.

The swab will be done in a consultation room and the pharmacist will be wearing all necessary personal protective equipment.

“We’ll ask that the patient when they come that they are masked. When we’re ready to do the throat swab obviously they’re taking their mask off and the throat swab is really a simple quick process similar to the way you would swab when you’re swabbing for the strep,” says Winston.

Results are usually available within three days.

Winston says negative results will be notified through an automated voice message.

“If it’s a positive test they will hear from the pharmacists, they’ll hear from their family physician and then there will be followup from public health for contact tracing,” Winston said.

Province-wide there have been about 10,300 asymptomatic tests performed at pharmacies. Sandstone Pharmacy is doing somewhere between 50 and 150 tests each day, Winston estimates.

He adds that in this time of COVID-19, this sort of program is exactly what pharmacies should be doing to support public health and help keep Albertans safe.

Albertans feel the same way.

“The comments coming back from the public are overwhelmingly supportive of the service being offered at pharmacies,” Winston said. “Whether they are getting their prescriptions at our pharmacy or not they’re very supportive of this service.”

Alberta Health Services will keep the list of pharmacies updated as more join the program. You can find a link to the full list here.

by Chris Brown

Medicine Hat pharmacies offering asymptomatic COVID testing

Our Community