By: Gretchen Smith
Communications Manager & Public Information Officer, Florida Department of Health in Flagler
With the recent spike in new COVID-19 cases, local health officials are doing their best to continue maintaining sufficient capacity at AdventHealth Palm Coast’s emergency room for genuine medical emergencies.
The public can help by not going to the hospital to get a COVID test. Doing so will preserve emergency care resources for patients in need of urgent care. Instead, residents should call the Flagler County Health Department for a testing appointment, understanding that the wait for testing is several days out. The health department offers drive through testing every weekday morning near the Flagler Executive Airport, and appointments can be made by calling 386-437-7350 ext. 0.
“Though we are experiencing unprecedented demand for testing, we’d like to remind residents that AdventHealth’s emergency room should not be utilized for routine COVID testing,” said Flagler Health Department’s Health Officer Robert Snyder. “The only people visiting the ER right now should be people with serious illnesses and life-threatening conditions. At our testing site near the Flagler Executive Airport, we are doing our best to get people tested as quickly as we can utilizing the resources we have. We appreciate everyone’s patience during this time of increased demand and wait times.”
Besides the health department test site, other testing locations in Flagler County include AdventHealth Centra Care, MediQuik’s two Palm Coast locations, some physicians and medical offices, and pharmacies. Most of these facilities are scheduling several days in advance because of extraordinary testing demand. Same day and walk-in appointments may be available at smaller independent pharmacies like One Pharmacy and Grace Community Pharmacy. Call them to confirm details.
The Florida Department of Health’s COVID testing locator database can be accessed by clicking on the link below: https://floridahealthcovid19.gov/testing-sites/