COTH COVID-19 testing site moving to Grants Mill campus
Tuesday afternoon, Layne Schranz, associate pastor at Church of the Highlands addressed the media today, giving an update on the Grandview COVID-19 testing site that opened today and their plans to move the location.
"In order to serve our state and more people even better, we are going to move to our largest location tomorrow and we will have the same setup taking place at our Grants Mill location at 4700 Highlands Way,” Schranz said. “We’ve been working very hard to do everything we can to serve our communities and serve the state of Alabama.”
After consulting with hospitals and the Jefferson County Dept. of Health, they figured out the best place have the testing site was not at the Grandview campus but instead at the Grants Mill campus.
COTH has partnered with Christ Health Center and Assurance Scientific Laborites to be able to provide testing for this Coronavirus. They will be accepting a lineup at 6:30 a.m. tomorrow (Wednesday) morning, and ask that people do not try to line up before then.
Testing will begin at 9 a.m. There isn’t an end time, but Schranz said they believe they will reach capacity before testing begins. They will pass that information along to the media and inform the public when that happens. Traffic signage will also be to inform those who are onsite.
“We are moving it tonight and it will be up and going tomorrow morning,” Schranz said. “We will take as many people as we can to facilitate full capacity for the day and then we will have to close the entry at that time.”
Schranz said that throughout the day on Tuesday, they were able to improve their processes while testing at the Grandview COTH campus and thanked the volunteers who made it possible, but said they are really thankful for and for the medical community and Christ Health Center and all the doctors and nurses that were actually doing the testing. Around 400 people were tested in a four hour time period.
“As we moved through today, we got better and better and systems got faster and faster and more efficient,” he said. "We expect we will take what we learned today at the Grandview location and improve up on it tomorrow and maximize our ability to test as many people as possible in the coming days and will reevaluate that each day to continue to serve our state.”
Schranz said our communities are feeling unsure right now and people are nervous and shared a scripture from Psalm 61 saying that’s their prayer for the whole state.
“We are praying over especially our medical community as they do their best to serve our citizens and our communities,” he said.
Dr. Robert Record, CEO of Christ Health Center and a family physician, said that he received a call from Dr. Ty Thomas last week asking how he could help. The two got together and spent last Saturday testing at Assurance Scientific Laboratories on Acton Road.
“We tested hundreds of people and found more disease in that day than we had leading up to it,” Record said. “We knew that testing needed to remain and be a resource for the community and for our state. We needed the data to even get people to realize how present COVID-19 was.”
After realizing that location wouldn’t accommodate the amount of people, Record called COTH pastor Chris Hodges, who said all in yes within two seconds. About 15 people met Sunday morning and within 48 hours, the drive in testing site was open.
Record said the first batches of those tests are already being run and they should have some results within hours, depending on how quickly the lab can process them while also processing tests from around the country.
“We know if we can test people, we can identify the disease and isolate people and stop disease from spreading as fast and to give us time to catch up,” he said.
While there’s no such thing as the most important, Record said they need to make sure the person most in need gets tested first.
“If you’re just curious or got a tickle in you through the may have COVID-19 and we wish we had unlimited testing...We really want people to look at themselves and ask ‘Is it important I get this test today, or can I wait because someone needs it more than me?’”
Testing is limited to people who have symptoms of fever, cough, or know they have been exposed to someone or in close personal contact with someone who has the virus.
“We are all in to do that and we want to do the best we can for the most people we can,” he said. “Last week I could test zero and today I tested hundreds. Thank God for that.”
Record said they are in constant consultation with the Jefferson County Dept. of Health and with hospital executives.
“Our community needs medicine and our community needs grace and mercy,” he said. “We are going to get a little rest tonight and do our best to take care of as many people as we can tomorrow.”