Premier Medical Associates is in desperate need of swabs for Coronavirus testing.
Lina Cohen, vice president of patient care for the healthcare provider, said they have been testing 15-20 people a day at their drive-up facility in The Villages, located at 1580 Santa Barbara Blvd. near UF Health The Villages Hospital. She said they have 15 such facilities in highly populated senior areas and have fielded close to 2,200 calls from concerned patients.
Cohen even went so far as to make a video with an impassioned plea for help from the state and smaller labs that might have some of the testing swabs available.
“We need to test these people,” she said. “We need to make sure they’re healthy so we can conquer this virus.”
Cohen said local health departments have been instructing potential COVID-19 patients to call her facilities for testing. She said area residents also are using the tele-visit services to find out if they should be tested.
“The numbers of people needing this are increasing,” she said.
Cohen also pointed out in her video that the COVID-19 crisis is not just about one city or area.
“We are in this together,” she said. “This is about the whole country standing up together to help one another.”
Those who think they might need a Coronavirus test or who represent a medical organization with testing swabs available can contact Cohen at (352) 259-2159 or at Lina.cohen@pmacare.com. You also can visit www.premiermedicalassociates.com.
Premier Medical Associates opened the drive-up testing site this past Monday. More than 15 people were swabbed on the first day in what Cohen described as an “outburst” of testing.
As of Friday afternoon, two Sumter County residents and three people from Lake County – one who lives in the Lady Lake Mobile Home Park – have tested positive for the COVID-19 virus. No patients have yet been reported in Marion County. Just under half of Florida’s 563 Coronavirus cases have been reported in South Florida in Broward and Miami-Dade counties.
