Scottsburg, Columbus among southern Indiana sites for expanded COVID-19 testing

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Indiana is planning to broaden COVID-19 testing across the state under a deal that aims to eventually let 30,000 Hoosiers per week find out if they have the respiratory illness.

The state is paying OptumServe Health Services $17.9 million to launch 20 test sites at Indiana National Guard armories by next week and grow to 50 locations by mid-May, said Dr. Lindsay Weaver, chief medical officer for the Indiana State Department of Health.

The closest locations to the Louisville metro area are Scottsburg and Columbus.

The expansion moves Indiana closer to its goal of testing every Hoosier with COVID-19 symptoms, Weaver said. OptumServe will test those with symptoms, as well as "close contacts" of people who have tested positive, and residents of nursing homes and other group-living settings, she said.

"This will provide a more complete picture about the spread of the virus, not only in high-risk populations but across the entire state," she said during a briefing in Indianapolis.

Indiana expanded COVID-19 test sites — Marcus Green

The tests will be by appointment only, with registration through a yet-to-be launched website, state officials said.

Weaver said the test sites will be open for at least eight hours per day from Monday through Friday, and those tested should get results back in 48 hours.

Once all the sites are open, she said, up to 6,600 people can get tested each day.

Indiana hasn't exceeded 3,665 tests in a single day under its current system that uses state, federal and private laboratories. In early April, State Health Commissioner Dr. Kris Box said she was hopeful that labs could be processing 6,300 tests per day.

She acknowledged last week that Indiana was short of those goals because of a lack of equipment to conduct proper tests in some parts of the state.

Gov. Eric Holcomb's administration also announced last week that the state and the Fairbanks School of Public Health at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis would start testing random Hoosiers for COVID-19 and its antibodies.

The work is meant to better understand how widespread the coronavirus-caused illness is — and has been — in Indiana.

Weaver said Tuesday that more than 3,700 people have registered for the testing's first phase, which aims to test 5,000 Hoosiers.

"We want to assure Hoosiers who are being contacted to participate that this is a legitimate study, and your help is truly needed," she said.

Indiana health officials reported fewer new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, a day after the largest one-day increase since the illness was detected in March.

In all, 650 Hoosiers were diagnosed with new infections, bringing the state's total number of cases to 16,588, according to data from the Indiana State Department of Health.

Those figures are down from 901 new cases disclosed Monday.

In Clark County, where a COVID-19 outbreak was announced Monday in a Clarksville nursing home, the number of newly reported cases returned to earlier levels. The state data show just six new cases, and no new deaths.

There have been 283 cases verified in Clark County; 13 people there have died.

In neighboring Floyd County, one new death and nine new cases were reported. The county now has 173 cases of COVID-19 and 13 related deaths.