UF Health has announced that it will resume COVID-19 testing in The Villages – this time targeting those who are showing symptoms of the potentially deadly virus instead of mostly asymptomatic residents.
UPDATE: Due to inclement weather, the testing that was to take place Thursday, April 16 has been pushed back to Friday, April 17.
A limited number of appointments were reportedly available at https://ufhealthcovid.com/
UF Health launched its Villages drive-through testing effort on March 23. The provider is in partnership with The Villages and originally announced that the testing only would be available to residents of the mega-retirement community. That plan changed when Gov. Ron DeSantis visited the site on opening day and announced in a press conference that it was open to all residents, though arrival via golf cart was highly recommended.
The testing site has created a great deal of controversy in the community among residents who were showing symptoms of the Coronavirus but couldn’t get appointments. Village of Briar Meadow South resident Priscilla Maday described the process as “discouraging.” Villager Beatrice Verbois struggled mightily for two weeks in failed efforts to get appointments for her and her 84-year-old husband. And late Villager Carol Lynch tried desperately to get an appointment but her daughter said she couldn’t get in before she succumbed April 2 to the virus at UF Health The Villages Hospital.
Another issue that created consternation among residents was the fact that the testing site initially concentrated mostly on residents who weren’t showing any signs of the virus for research purposes. At the end of the first week, the provider announced that it had tested 1,400 asymptomatic residents compared to 900 who were showing symptoms. Of those, it claimed that 25 tested positive – 23 of whom displayed symptoms of the virus.
Another element of frustration has hinged on the fact that Villagers and other area residents aren’t sure if and when the site will be open. On April 8 – just one day after upset Villagers and area residents expressed immense frustrations in a Villages-News.com article – UF Health announced that the site had been shut down because of a lack of supplies such as testing kits and safety/personal protective equipment. Prior to that, residents desperately were attempting to get appointments every morning at a site that apparently wasn’t going to reopen anytime soon.
UF Health, which owns the hospitals in The Villages and Leesburg, also had announced on its webpage that potential testing slot openings would be announced 24-36 hours in advance only via the Developer-owned newspaper’s website, Facebook page, Twitter account and mobile app. That left many Villagers in the dark about much-needed information and that webpage still doesn’t offer a contact phone number or an email address for those seeking information – a fact that even left a UF Health employee stymied recently.
As of Wednesday afternoon, UF Health was claiming to have tested 3,955 people at the polo fields site. Of those, the agency says 1,855 were showing symptoms and 2,100 were asymptomatic. The agency also said that the tests being conducted Thursday will be done so with supplies and kits that have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In the past, UF Health had said that some of the testing kits it was using at the polo fields hadn’t yet received FDA approval.
The UF Health testing effort followed a drive-through site that opened March 16 at Premier Medical Associates in The Villages. That facility, located at 1580 Santa Barbara Blvd., has continually fought to get more testing supplies and is still checking patients who are showing symptoms and are deemed eligible by physicians who speak with them via tele-visits.
