Walmart to set up more test locations

Goal now 50; site is added in Texas

Medical personnel work at a covid-19 drive-thru testing site late last month in the parking lot of Walmart store in North Lake, Ill.
(AP/Nam Y. Huh)
Medical personnel work at a covid-19 drive-thru testing site late last month in the parking lot of Walmart store in North Lake, Ill. (AP/Nam Y. Huh)

Walmart Inc. continues to add coronavirus testing sites around the country, raising its goal to 50 locations and expanding into Texas with a site opening in Lubbock.

The retailer has opened drive-thru testing in Tulsa and Albuquerque in recent days, plus three sites in upstate New York. Together with previously announced sites in Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan and Alabama, and at its Bentonville headquarters, Walmart now has 12 sites as it moves toward its goal of opening more than 20 in 10 states by the end of the month.

The company said on its corporate website that it "learned from our initial sites to get the model right and are expanding testing in areas of need as quickly as possible, with the goal of supporting as many as 50 testing sites across the country."

No dates have been set for rolling out the additional sites, Walmart spokeswoman Marilee McInnis said in an email Wednesday.

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The Lubbock site will open Friday, according to The Dallas Morning News. Citing a Walmart spokeswoman, the newspaper said a second Texas site will open this week. She didn't give the location, but San Antonio's metro health director told radio station KTSA on Tuesday that Walmart will open a testing site on that city's west side.

Walmart works with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, state and local officials, and its lab partners to select sites based on areas of need.

Most of Walmart's testing sites, set up in Supercenter and Sam's Club parking lots, are run in conjunction with Quest Diagnostics. However, Walmart also is working with diagnostic lab eTrueNorth at its Tulsa and Joliet, Ill., sites, according to a map of Walmart testing locations at https://corporate.walmart.com/covid19testing.

McInnis said the drive-thru sites will test anyone with symptoms of the virus, as well as health care workers and emergency responders whether or not they have any symptoms. Appointments are required, though.

People taking the tests swab their noses while in their cars and under the supervision of Walmart pharmacists and other medical professionals. They then seal the swabs in a sample bag that they drop into a container as they leave.

Quest Diagnostics delivers the results in an average of two days, Walmart said. ETrueNorth returns results in one to two days.

People being tested don't pay anything out of pocket, the company said.

And Walmart is not compensated for the use of its property for the testing sites. The retailer says it donates the space plus site supplies. Some Walmart pharmacists have volunteered to help with the testing.

Business on 04/23/2020

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