Find Out Where to Test Your Child for COVID-19
Every time a child is sick, plans change dramatically. You can keep them out of school, or you can cancel the job yourself. In 2020, a new consideration has emerged: Where can I get this child tested for COVID?
As recently noted on Twitter Medical columnist Sarah Cliff, on the question not easy to answer. Her first surprise was that Walgreens only tests adults for COVID, not children. (By the way, it’s the same in CVS and Rite Aid). There were free test sites in her city, but they only accepted children from six years old.
Reading her thread, I realized that I didn’t know where I would go for the test if one of my kids needed it. A quick Google search reveals that this question is not easy to answer. The Health Resources and Services Administration (hrsa.gov) has an index of testing sites , but does not provide much information about the sites. You should visit their websites or call them individually to see if they are testing children or if they are testing the general public at all.
CDC suggests contacting your state health department or local health department for a list of local health departments. It is still difficult to find out which testing sites are near you, and even more difficult if you are looking for one that accepts children, especially young children.
I took this as a little fact-finding exercise and started searching Google where I would take my child if he needed a test. I haven’t come up with an answer, although I have a list of places I can call. This is a sad state of affairs for a country during a pandemic when schools are reopening. My kids’ school says they will close if there are a certain number of cases in the building, but if a child has a hard time even taking the test, how many cases will they really find out about?
There is one more recommendation, and it will most likely give you a solid answer: Call your child’s pediatrician . They will know what testing sites are available in your area and if you need a referral or appointment. I would say that if your child has an appointment soon, ask now where you could get tested if you needed it. That way, at the very least, you’ll be prepared if it turns out that you need to change your schedule even further in order to travel to a distant center or make an appointment earlier. Raising children is not fun during a pandemic, but it is worth planning ahead.