If You Want a COVID Test Before Thanksgiving, Don’t Go to Drive-Thru Sites, Thurston County Says

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Amid a surge of COVID-19 cases and wait times as long as 4 to 5 hours at Providence’s Hawks Prairie drive-thru testing site, Thurston County is advising people who want to get tested prior to holiday social gatherings to arrange it though their primary care provider and to avoid the two drive-thru testing locations.

In a letter to the community on Friday, Health Officer Dr. Dimyana Abdelmalek reiterated Gov. Jay Inslee’s new restrictions on public gatherings announced last Sunday. The governor’s guidance says not to gather indoors with people outside your household unless you quarantine for 14 days prior, or quarantine for seven days prior and receive a negative COVID-19 test result 48 hours before the gathering.

But because the county’s two drive-thru testing sites are so overloaded, those wishing to get tested just to attend social gatherings are being advised to seek testing elsewhere.

“If you’re somebody that wants to follow the governor’s guidance and quarantine for seven days and get a negative test result 48 hours before you go to a Thanksgiving dinner at grandma’s house, our testing sites are not going to test you,” said Magen Johnson, COVID-19 Public Information Officer for Thurston County Public Health and Social Services. “We do not have the capacity right now in our community to test people for those reasons.”

Johnson advised residents to contact their primary care providers instead, and check with their insurance company about coverage. She said insurance may not cover the test if you don’t have symptoms.



The Providence Hawks Prairie site has in the past limited its testing to people with symptoms and those preparing for a medical procedure. This morning, Providence announced that it plans to divert pre-procedure testing to other clinics to reduce the wait. Last week the site began turning people away when waits extended 4 to 5 hours and there were over 200 cars in line.

However, the other drive-thru testing site, SeaMar Community Health Center in west Olympia, will continue testing anyone, regardless of whether they have symptoms or not, according to Yasin Moussaoui, Health Center Administrator for the Olympia clinic, which is open only on Thursdays and Fridays. Other SeaMar testing locations are by appointment or only for people with symptoms.

There also are other testing sites in the county, including no-cost walk-up sites in Tenino, Rochester, and Olympia. But those sites will only test people with symptoms or close contacts of confirmed cases.