With the intent to promote vaccination over routine testing for unvaccinated individuals, the Pima County Health Department has changed its criteria for free COVID-19 testing.
Those presenting COVID-19 symptoms or who believe they’ve been in close contact with someone who tested positive for the virus can access the county’s testing program, but not those seeking tests for work-related reasons or those who’ve had a test within the past 14 days and don’t have COVID-19 symptoms.
“Our goal is to get people vaccinated, so we do not want to be the provider of testing for those occupational or work-related situations that enables people to defer vaccinations,” said Dr. Theresa Cullen, director of the Pima County Health Department. “From a public health perspective, our goal is to get people vaccinated, so that is the primary reason why we have elected to not allow people seeking occupational work-related testing.”
The other reason, Cullen said, is the cost of testing; the county’s using its own federal relief dollars to subsidize the tests.
In late August, the county decided to use its federal allocation from the American Rescue Plan to continue funding its free testing program — which it says has cost more than $50 million since the start of the pandemic — after the state pulled out of the county’s contract with its largest testing contractor, Paradigm Laboratories.
“We want to make sure that we’re supportive and understanding of people’s needs, but the problem is all the options cost money,” Cullen said. “It’s my responsibility to make sure I’m an appropriate steward of resources.”
Pima County has made the availability of free COVID-19 testing a key pillar of its response to the pandemic, and Cullen said, “One of our success stories has been that we have made access to testing easy and not dependent upon your ability to pay.”
But now that COVID-19 testing is widely available through health-care providers and pharmacies, the county is rethinking who it provides free testing to.
“Early on, we recognize that people sought testing because they were concerned or worried or just unclear of what was going on,” Cullen said. “But this far into the pandemic, we really want to recognize that testing is a constrained resource. We need to use it appropriately for those who need it.”
Cullen says county-sponsored facilities are performing between 800 to 1,000 antigen tests a day, with 8% to 10% of tests coming from repeat testers. Some people, Cullen said, have received six tests within two weeks.
“Maybe that’s somebody that’s just really, really scared,” she said. “But testing costs money, we are expending county-based resources, whether they be reimbursed by the federal government or the state, we are making a decision to use those resources, and we want to be appropriate stewards of those resources.”
To help schools mitigate COVID outbreaks, the county health department is providing free take-home testing kits for students and family members, and Cullen says the department is working on providing the same resource at its testing sites.
“You could be just a contact and test negative, but you’re worried you might get symptomatic. They should be able to give you a (take home) test,” she said.
Cullen says COVID-19 contacts should wait to take a test at least three days after the date of exposure if they’re vaccinated, and at least five days after exposure if they’re unvaccinated.
As the criteria for the county’s free COVID tests changes, the health department’s converting the Abrams Public Health Center from a testing site to a vaccine distribution center for booster and first and second doses beginning Sunday, Oct. 3.
“I want to assure people that the transition from testing to vaccine at Abrams is not to decrease testing access, it’s to increase vaccine access,” Cullen said. “If that isn’t what the need is, and we’ll follow the numbers on a daily basis, then we will reassess what we will do.”
Other free testing options
While the county-sponsored sites now involve an intake process where valid reasoning for the test must be provided, free testing is still available for asymptomatic people at the Tucson International Airport and the Ellie Towne Center at 1660 W. Ruthrauff Road.
The type of testing at non-county-sponsored locations may look different, however. Most county sites use an antigen COVID-19 test, which has a quick turnaround for results and looks for small pieces of protein in the respiratory tract.
The airport provides a free PCR test, which requires a laboratory service to look for COVID-19 nucleic acid that yields results in 24 to 48 hours. Ellie Towne Center has ASU-sponsored saliva diagnostic testing with test results available about 48 hours after a sample is submitted.
The health department is also encouraging University of Arizona students and faculty to take advantage of the university’s free testing resources.
Updated information on Pima County’s testing sites is available at pima.gov/covid19testing. The state health department also has a portal to find a nearby testing center at azdhs.gov.
