Riverside County's 1st private drive-thru COVID-19 testing site opens in Hemet
HEMET, Calif. (KABC) -- Riverside County's first private drive-thru testing center for COVID-19 opened in Hemet on Tuesday.
The testing site, which is operated by Hemet Global Medical Center, will be available to referred patients, those experiencing severe symptoms or elderly patients, who considered most at risk for the virus.
For those in the Hemet or San Jacinto area, other public testing sites across the Inland Empire may be too far to travel to, which is why officials opened this one.
"We still have a very large senior population. For them to have to travel an hour, an hour and a half, away from the valley is difficult for them, especially now with having all the social distancing issues and so forth that are enacted. We want to try to mitigate some of those issues for those folks," said Hemet Global's Keith Garrison.
The process takes about 10 minutes, and test results are typically available within two to three days. Appointments can be made by calling (951) 765-4757. The program is scheduled to be held from 8 a.m. to noon.
Other Riverside County public testing sites include one at the county fairgrounds in Indio and another in the parking lot of The Diamond baseball stadium in Lake Elsinore, which has been operating for a few weeks.
A third drive-up testing site was set to open in at the Harvest Christian Fellowship church in Riverside on Wednesday.
Coronavirus: Drive-thru testing held outside Lake Elsinore baseball stadium
