BECKLEY, WV (WOAY) – Wednesday afternoon the Partnership of African American Churches (PAAC) Covid-19 Surge Testing Team conducted Covid testing at the Multicultural Center in Beckley. The testing went from 12 PM to 6 PM and was free to the public.
“We were asked to come into the community,” said PAAC Covid-19 Surge Testing Clinical Director Jayne Patterson. “We have targeted communities of color because we know they have been disproportionately affected. We are excited to be out in the community providing this service to folks.”
The Covid-19 Surge Testing team uses a less evasive nasal swab test which swabs both nostrils for around fifteen seconds each. Then once tested, patients can receive their results in two to three days. The nurses encourage everyone to still get tested even with the vaccine in order to stay informed and help prevent the spread of the virus.
“The most important thing in my mind is that it’s so easy to spread with no symptoms,” Patterson said. “You can infect your entire family, you can infect many members of your community without any knowledge that you even have the disease.”
“You need to know, you need to be aware whether you have Covid or not,” said PAAC CNA Swabber Brianna Turner. “Just because you got the vaccine you definitely need to be aware.”
The Covid-19 Surge Testing Team has conducted several testing clinics across the state and have more planned at the Heart of God Ministries on Thursday and Saturday. The team plans for more testing clinics in the future.
“We’ve got teams up in the northern part of the state and we have two teams here in the southern part of the state,” Patterson said. “We’ve been in the Kanawha county area several times and we are up in the northern panhandle and then in the Fairmont and Morgantown area. We’ve done several I couldn’t put my finger on it at the moment, but we are hoping to do a lot more.”
For more information on testing sites and locations visit the PAAC Covid-19 Surge Testing Facebook page.
