Demand For COVID-19 Testing On The Rise In Oklahoma

Monday, July 6th 2020, 5:32 pm

By: Karl Torp

The demand to get a COVID-19 test has skyrocketed in the Oklahoma City metro area.

First Med Urgent Care clinics, which offer rapid COVID-19 tests, stopped taking walk-in patients at all five of its locations Monday afternoon.

The Oklahoma City-County Health Department has set up a hotline.

The department said it usually gets 300 calls a day.

But over the last two weeks that number has grown to 800 calls with people worried about exposure.

“I was at a bar. I was a restaurant. Somebody was coughing, I think I have been exposed,” said OCCHD Chief of Government Affairs L'Toya Knighten about the types of calls coming into the hotline.

The Oklahoma City-County Health Department is expanding testing hours at its two locations, now 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. each weekday by appointment.

The two testing locations are 2600 NE 63rd Street and 6728 S. Hudson Ave.

The OCCHD hotline number is 405-425-4489.

Karl Torp

Karl Torp is an award-winning journalist who’s been part of the News 9 team since 2012. He co-anchors the 4 p.m., 5 p.m., 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. newscasts on weekdays. Karl loves telling Oklahoma’s unique stories, and he’s also a huge sports junkie. He loves to think of trades that would help the Oklahoma City Thunder win a World Championship (despite knowing little to nothing about salary caps and luxury taxes).