A rapid result test for COVID-19 that has been offered by the Medicine Shoppe Pharmacy in Salem has proved popular and is finding about 30-percent of those tested are positive.
Pharmacist Craig Morton worked for about six months to get the program set up and to become certified. In the two weeks since the testing started, he reports 457 tests have completed with 133 positive results.
“Nobody comes in contact with anybody. You stay in your car. You swab your own nose which is important. It’s a very easy swab and isn’t the one that goes back to that spot near your brain it’s just 5 times around each nostril and we say we need some “snot and boogers” and we will have a result in 15 minutes. When you say that, people know what you are looking for and it’s what we need.”
Morton says the test results are available within 15 minutes which solves the frustration of having to wait two to five days for results.
The Medicine Shoppe is charging $60 for the test, with no insurance coverage available.
