State Department Of Health To Release New Information On Satellite Testing Sites

The Oklahoma State Department of Health is expected to release new information on four satellite testing centers planned across the state. 

Originally they were being calling mobile testing sites, but OSDH officials said these may not be drive thru. 

The new centers are planned for Oklahoma City, Tulsa, near Ponca City and McAlester.

The Health Department said they should have more information to release on Tuesday and in the coming days about these centers and how they will work.

State leaders have repeatedly said their goal is to increase testing across Oklahoma. The public health lab, through the health department, can only run about 50 to 100 tests a day. This is something the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University are both going to help with.

Researchers at the OU health sciences center said they are waiting on testing kits, but in the interim they are still working on new testing methods.

"We are working on other platforms so we can have other ways in which to do testing," explained Vice President of Research of OU Health Science Center Dr. James Tomasek. "So the laboratory itself has ordered some other machines so they can do other types of platforms for testing."

Just like the test kits, there are some wait times for those machines. 

With the new methods, researchers said they could potentially test hundreds if not thousands each day. 

According to the numbers posted online more than 700 Oklahomans have been tested so far.