BECKLEY, WV (WOAY) – Dr. Ayne Amjad and her staff began drive thru-testing for COVID-19 on Friday in Beckley at her Primary Care and Prevention Clinic.
“We had the first case in Jefferson County and the second case in Mercer County. I got worried because you know, north and south. It’s going to start spreading in the middle and we don’t have any drive-by testing,” Dr. Amjad said. “Everyone keeps calling about testing sites and I know the northern area of the state does have these, and I know we need to start having them here.”
Dr. Amjad got her staff together on Thursday, and they decided that they were going to take their eight tests and start doing it on their own.
The two that came by to get tested came with a go-ahead from other doctors that said they met the criteria and needed to be tested.
One man drove up saying he had no symptoms but was concerned because of his age. Dr. Amjad and her staff were not able to test him because he was not showing symptoms nor did he have a doctor’s order.
While Dr. Amjad says she wishes she could leave this open to the public and let anyone come, testing kits are hard to come by because of the high demand.
“Not everyone can get tested,” Dr. Amjad said. “And I said this: I can’t test myself right now. I would have to lie on that testing thing to even test myself. I couldn’t test my mother if I wanted to test her. People don’t seem to understand that. Unless we lie on that thing, I couldn’t test anyone in my office right now if I wanted to.”
Dr. Amjad received her tests from the CAMC LabWorks with the Charleston Area Medical Center, so the two tests will go to the Mayo Clinic to be tested.
A phlebotomist and medical assistant conducted the tests even wearing motorcycle helmets as they believed that would give them much fuller protective coverage as they swabbed through the window of the vehicles.
All patients were encouraged to self-quarantine as Dr. Amjad continues to insist that everyone needs to take this seriously and stay home.
“We got alerts on our phones two days ago from the hospital that you might be called in as a backup emergency doctors to come in,” Dr. Amjad said. “I’ve never gotten that in my life. I didn’t get that post-9/11 in my life, so people need to realize what’s happening.”
They plan to do this at the clinic every weekday from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. while supplies last at Dr. Amjad’s clinic located at 330 N Eisenhower Drive.
Even though Dr. Amjad is sending her tests to a private lab, she still has to let the DHHR know that she has pending tests and will notify them if they come back positive or negative. She expects this will take 5-7 days.
