OCCHD Sees Drop In Demand For COVID Tests

The Oklahoma City County Health Department said it's been seeing a decrease in testing demand. 

On Monday, the agency modified its COVID-19 testing hours, but will continue to re-evaluate the need if demand increases.  

Jennifer Krawic, incident commander at OCCHD says the numbers changed drastically. 

“It was really surprising to go from the week before last almost 600 people testing a day,” Krawic said. “But for last week, each day we were struggling to go above the 100 mark.” 

OCCHD says there are a lot of factors that go into this change. One reason being increased accessibility to at home test kits. 

They're now covered by insurance and available for free courtesy of the federal government. 

The drop in demand is being seen statewide. 

Maggie Jackson, interim regional administrative director at Canadian County Health said they’re seeing a decline as well.  

“We are still testing 50-75 a day,” Jackson said, “But those numbers are starting to drop off.” 

County health officials made a big push to get people vaccinated before the surge and plan to resume that drive in the next few weeks. 

But that's all dependent on the public. 

“If we see a demand for testing and patients are going back to the emergency room for tests,” Krawic said. “Then we would go back to testing in our facility again.” 

These are OKC County Health's updated hours: 

Southern Oaks Health and Wellness Campus 

6728 S. Hudson Ave. 

Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m. – Noon 

Northeast Testing Center 

2720 NE 63rd St. 

Monday-Friday, 1 p.m. – 4 p.m. 

There will be no testing at OCCHD on Saturday.  

You can schedule a test by clicking here.