By appointment only
Drive-thru COVID-19 testing will be made available at the Orleans Hotel & Casino parking garage in Las Vegas from Tuesday. The new operation is the result of a partnership between the Universal Medical Center (UMC) and Clark County to help Nevada get ready for the imminent lifting of the stay-at-home order.
on-site process to collect a sample should only take ten minutes
Only those who make appointments in advance will be allowed into the facility, with testing set to take place between 8am and 4pm. Clark County Fire Department Chief (CCFD) John Steinbeck says the on-site process to collect a sample should only take ten minutes.
A three-step process
The drive-thru testing will consist of a three-step process. Patients at the Orleans Hotel premises will need to verify to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and National Guard troops that they have a valid appointment. This will allow them to progress to the second step of matching patient information correctly. The final step will see them drive to a nurse’s station, where further troops will be on hand to take a nasal swab.
the idea is to build this as a scalable unit”
Around 80 National Guard troops will help staff the facility in the first two days. The decision to overstaff was a deliberate one to ensure that trained personnel are readily available if future clinics are opened quickly. CCFD Batallion Chief Rain Glassford said: “The idea is to build this as a scalable unit so we can take this, and the logistics that were involved in setting this one up, we can take it and plop it down in another garage pretty easily.”
No charge and no symptoms
Appointments will be available on the UMC website at no charge, and patients do not have to exhibit coronavirus symptoms to book a test. The Orleans Hotel & Casino parking site will be the first testing facility in Southern Nevada to take swabs from asymptomatic individuals.
Initially, the site will test 300 people daily, with numbers set to increase to 500 swabs a day by Thursday. Chief Steinbeck informed: “We want this to be as fast as possible. We’ve got to get thousands of these done in our community.”
The stay-at-home order across Nevada is due to lift on May 15.
A critical step for data
County Commissioner Michael Naft said the introduction of drive-thru testing in Las Vegas was a “critical step” in collecting as much COVID-19-related data as possible. This will help inform decisions regarding when certain facilities can reopen.
Naft said: “I think the more information we have about how the virus is spreading in our community, or hopefully not spreading in our community, the better it will be and the more informed we can make decisions.”