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Rhode Island-based CVS Health will offer tests for the new coronavirus at four pharmacy drive-up sites in Maine beginning Friday.
“Each of these drive-thru test locations can conduct up to five tests per hour and up to about 50 per day,” CVS spokesperson Joe Goode said.
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The new sites in Augusta, Biddeford, Portland and South Portland will offer self-swab tests processed by an independent third-party lab, with results available in about three days, Goode said.
Patients will check their eligibility online and schedule an appointment, Goode said.
“A pharmacists technician who is behind the drive-thru window will provide a test kit and then help patients administer the self-administered swab, and after that, the patient seals the test, all this is done in the car, and drop it in a near-by receptacle and off they go,” Goode said.
Goode said the tests will be covered at no cost, even for those with no insurance. No testing will take place inside the stores, and Goode said there are no plans to set up more test sites in Maine.
The four new Maine sites are part of the company’s effort to open a thousand sites nationwide by the end of May.
This article appears through a media partnership with Maine Public.