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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Fairgrounds testing site will close Friday, set to reopen on Monday

U.S. Navy Reserve Lieutenant Commander Lisa Tisch, ARNP prepares to work at Providence Express Care 's new rapid COVID-19 testing site in Spokane on April 17. (Kathy Plonka / The Spokesman-Review)

The COVID-19 testing site at the Spokane County Fair and Expo Center will close on Friday but reopen Monday, operating from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays.

The Washington National Guard will now staff the drive-up site. Staff will including medical personnel who screen people for COVID-like symptoms and administer tests.

The Spokane Regional Health District will continue to oversee the alternative care campus at the Fairgrounds, which includes an isolation care center that will remain open to individuals who need to isolate themselves but can’t do so in their homes.

Spokane County residents can also access COVID-19 testing from their local health care providers, which are offering screening and testing sites throughout the county. CHAS, Providence, MultiCare, Kaiser Permanente, Unify, Native Project and Franklin Park Urgent Care clinics are all offering screening and testing starting Friday, if they have not already been doing so. Call first before visiting a clinic or urgent care visit to determine if you need a referral or to visit a specific site for testing.

State health officials expanded the guidance for testing criteria in Washington, recommending that anyone with mild, moderate or severe COVID-19 symptoms be tested, including the list of new symptoms released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week.

Washington state wants to expand its testing capacity as it looks to reopen parts of society, and Gov. Jay Inslee’s office received confirmation Thursday that the federal government will help with testing supplies. The federal government will invoke the Defense Production Act to increase production of testing supplies, something Inslee has advocated for weeks.

“The White House and senior officials with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services have communicated to us that they will immediately begin shipping large quantities of sample collection supplies to states and will be making weekly distributions for at least the months of May and June, with a commitment to help manage the domestic supply chain to ensure states’ continued access to supplies for the remainder of the year,” Inslee said in a news release.

Washington state continues to add about 200 new confirmed cases daily. As of Thursday, there are 14,327 confirmed cases statewide, with 814 deaths. Spokane County continues to trend downwards, with only seven new cases reported since Monday, for a total of 362 countywide. Only 10 people are receiving treatment for COVID-19 in Spokane County hospitals.

On Thursday, Spokane County Health Officer Dr. Bob Lutz said he was concerned that residents are not accessing emergency health care like they should for medical emergencies such as heart attacks or strokes.

“All of the EMS system is prepared to take care of individuals,” Lutz said, noting that the health care system is prepared to take patients needing emergency care.

Arielle Dreher's reporting for The Spokesman-Review is primarily funded by the Smith-Barbieri Progressive Fund, with additional support from Report for America and members of the Spokane community. These stories can be republished by other organizations for free under a Creative Commons license. For more information on this, please contact our newspaper’s managing editor.