Fairbanks COVID-19 drive-thru testing center to relocate

In a press conference Thursday, panelists for the Interior Unified Incident Command gave updates on their COVID-19 response.

Foundation Health Partner's drive-thru testing facility, which began in early April, will be relocating from 9th and Noble Street to the south end of the Fairbanks Memorial Hospital campus in between the FMH building and the Fairbanks Imaging Center starting Monday, May 4.

"Drive-up testing will continue for patients who have an order from a provider to have the test completed," Laura Brunner, Pediatrician at Foundation Health Partners said. "The state of Alaska continues to encourage testing of any symptomatic patient, even with mild symptoms of COVID-19."

Also speaking on the panel, Executive Director of Health Services at the Tanana Chiefs Conference Jacoline Bergstrom, who said TCC will begin phasing into their routine services in the coming weeks.

However, for TCC and other industries to re-open, masking and social distancing will be necessary to continue leading to a flat curve, Bergstrom said.

Along with those measures, advancements in testing will be important to keeping the public safe.

"One of the things that will help, is if we can get expedited testing more widely available in the Interior, because we are not only serving Fairbanks but we are also serving our communities," Bergstrom said. "The other part is that contract tracing is going to continue to be important for those cases that will see moving forward," she went on to say.

Fairbanks Memorial Hospital also gave updates on their testing numbers to date. As of April 29, they had administered over 3,400 tests and have not seen a positive test result at the hospital in 20 days, according to Clint Brooks, incident commander with the Unified Incident Command.

Brooks also mentioned that the resident at the Denali Center who tested positive in late March is now "COVID free", receiving two negative tests since their diagnosis.