National Guard to set up Tri-Cities COVID testing site. Here’s where else you can go

Update: Drive-thru testing site in Pasco will close early on Sunday Jan. 16.

The Tri-Cities will be getting some help with COVID-19 testing thanks to the Washington state National Guard.

Gov. Jay Inslee announced Thursday that he was deploying 100 national guard members across the state to set up testing sites and to help with nonmedical tasks in some crowded hospital emergency rooms as the omicron variant causes a surge of new cases.

Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland is one of the sites where the National Guard will establish a temporary testing site for Tri-Cities area residents needing routine testing.

The hospital’s emergency departments in Richland and Kennewick now are testing ill patients who are admitted, but are not doing routine COVID-19 testing.

They ask that patients not come to emergency departments just for testing.

The new testing site is not expected to open for about a week.

But Tri-Cities area residents can continue to get tested at the community drive-thru testing site in Pasco or the walk-up site in Richland.

Both provide the service for free. However, the demand for testing is high because of the surge in omicron cases and lines for testing have been longer than normal.

Pharmacy, at-home tests

Many pharmacies also offer testing.

The Benton Franklin Health District maintains a list of where testing is available in the two-county area at covid19.bfhd.wa.gov/testing-sites.

Information on hours, whether an appointment is required and cost is available on its website for many pharmacies.

Some pharmacies also sell home testing kits, although they are reported to be in short supply.

Starting Saturday, Jan. 15, most insurance companies will be required to cover the cost of over-the-counter test kits, whether obtained online or in stores. There is a limit of eight test per person per month.

Free testing sites

For a free drive-thru test in Pasco, go to the Columbia Basin College site at 3110 W. Argent Road.

It is open 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. everyday but Wednesdays and Thursdays. It will close early at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday Nov. 16 to help the University of Washington laboratory catch up on results, but will be open on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Jan. 17.

The free walk-up tests in Richland are offered at 975 George Washington Way.

The site is open 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. every day of the week except Friday and Saturday, according to the Benton Franklin Health District.

It also stays open Wednesdays and Thursdays until 5 p.m., says Bernie Ragul, the site supervisor who works with Columbia Safety LLC.

However, it will be closed Sunday, Jan. 16, as the UW laboratory that processes tests catches up with samples already received. The site will then return to its normal schedule.

Preregistering online can save some time at either of the community test sites but is not required. Go to covid19.bfhd.wa.gov/testing-sites.

The two free testing sites have started prioritizing testing for people who have been exposed to COVID-19 or have possible symptoms, rather than people who need tests to travel or to attend events. Those people are asked to check with pharmacies for a test.

Washington state orders

National Guard testing sites, in addition to the one at Kadlec, will be set up in Olympia, Seattle and Tacoma, Inslee said as he issued new COVID-19 orders on Thursday.

Hospitals getting National Guard support in their emergency departments are in Everett, Yakima, Wenatchee and Spokane.

Inslee also announced Thursday that hospitals in Washington are required to pause non-urgent procedures to allow as much staff as possible to be devoted to ill patients.

The pause on non-urgent procedures does not include treatment for life-threatening injuries or serious conditions such as strokes or heart attacks, Kadlec said.

This story was originally published January 13, 2022 at 7:03 PM.