LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Louisville has seen a decline in positive COVID-19 cases, but ahead of the Halloween weekend, city health officials said it's as good of time as any to get tested.
Health officials said routinely knowing your viral status is a great way to protect your loved ones, and that's why testing sites are so important.
On Friday afternoon, Nathan Butler, got his COVID-19 test in the parking lot of Southeast Christian Church on Blankenbaker Parkway. He's fully-vaccinated, but he's traveling internationally this week.
"It's a great local place that we can always get into," Butler said of the Southeast Christian testing site. "I'm heading to Amsterdam and to Paris."
Dina English, vice president of sales and marketing at Bluewater Diagnostic Laboratory, said they haven't stopped running their testing sites as the pandemic wore on.
“We never stopped because we still have people that wanted to get tested just to have that comfort and safety,” English said. "And now, especially around the holidays, we’re really starting to ramp up a little bit at all of our sites. With Halloween, you know, they're going to be around each other. And then for Thanksgiving, if you're going to travel, then we encourage you to get a test before and after."
English said at the height of the pandemic, Bluewater tested several hundred people a day at the Southeast location.
"We've been here ever since the onset of the pandemic," she said. "So it's well over a year and a half now.”
And she said a lot has changed in that time frame.
People get tested for COVID-19 in the parking lot of Southeast Christian Church on Blankenbaker Parkway. Bluewater Diagnostic Laboratory conducted the testing. Oct. 29, 2021. (WDRB Photo)
“We were on a two-hour, three-hour wait here," she said. “And we used to give out vouchers and tickets for people to come back at a certain time. We had to manage the traffic. But today, as you can see, it’s just walk up and you can get tested.”
These days, it's more like 50-100 cars per day, but English said the site is there indefinitely.
"We're here every day, Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.," she said.
Bluewater also offers more than one way to be tested. , including the rapid COVID-19 test.
Butler didn’t take a rapid test, but he expects to get the results before boarding the plane to leave the country.
"We get to meet up with some family," he said. "A sister and brother in-law are coming over as well. So a little family reunion abroad."
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's website, fully-vaccinated travelers don't need to get tested before leaving the United States unless required by their destination:
"Fully-vaccinated air travelers coming to the United States from abroad, including U.S. citizens, are still required to have a negative SARS-CoV-2 viral test result or documentation of recovery from COVID-19 before they board a flight to the United States."
"You have to meet all those time lines for COVID testing before you can get on the plane," Butler said. “And we'll do the same thing when I get back into the country. I'll retake a test just to make sure that everything is fine before we get started back, visiting around the holidays."
For information on when, where and how you can get a COVID-19 test, click here.
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