Jefferson Parish Government: OCHSNER TO OFFER COVID-19 RAPID TESTING AT SHRINE ON AIRLINE

Press release from the Jefferson Parish Government:

January 4, 2022

JEFFERSON, LA - Ochsner Health and Jefferson Parish will begin offering drive-thru rapid COVID-19 testing on Wednesday, January 5 at the Shrine on Airline in Metairie (6000 Airline Drive), to help meet the community’s unprecedented demand for COVID-19 tests fueled by the Omicron variant.

Testing will take place Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and will serve community members ages 2 years old and up. Limited appointments will open for scheduling each day at 7 a.m. and can be made online via a patient’s MyOchsner account or by calling 844-888-2772. For the quickest service, patients are encouraged to complete the ePre-Check process online once your appointment is scheduled and have your QR code ready and accessible upon arrival.

Those who arrive onsite without an appointment will be accommodated as supplies and capacity allow. Demand for COVID-19 testing remains very high in the New Orleans area, so patients seeking testing at this drive-thru site should expect extended wait times. This site is best suited for symptomatic patients, not for those who are asymptomatic and seeking a test to travel or return to school.

Ochsner will staff this testing site and administer a limited supply each day of the Binax Rapid Antigen tests only; no PCR tests will be available. Results will be available within an hour through the patient’s MyOchsner account. Patients can wait in a designated area immediately after their test is administered if printed results are needed.

Those who test positive can access Ochsner’s free COVID-19 Self Care and Symptom Monitoring Program to help treat symptoms at home and get medical assistance if symptoms worsen.

“We are offering this service to the community because we want people with COVID-19 symptoms to be able to access a fast and reliable test and we know they are currently in short supply,” said Sandra Kemmerly, MD, System Medical Director of Hospital Quality, Ochsner Health. “While we encourage anyone who is not feeling well to stay home, providing a convenient opportunity to quickly know your COVID status will allow patients to properly isolate and treat symptoms at home, helping us to stop the spread of the virus as we battle a fifth surge.”

“We are proud to continue to partner with Ochsner Health to bring more COVID-19 testing to Jefferson Parish at a time when our residents really need it,” said Jefferson Parish President Cynthia Lee Sheng. “It’s unfortunate that we are now in a fifth surge at the start of a new year, but we know how to fight this. Let’s all do our part so that we can get back to all of the activities that we enjoy as a healthy community.”

Drivers will enter the testing site from Airline Drive via Dep. James Clarius Drive at the entrance to the Jefferson Performing Arts Center. From there, Ochsner employees, with assistance from the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, will direct vehicles into separate lanes depending on appointment and registration status. Community members are asked to employ patience as testing supplies are limited.

Ochsner is continuing to provide additional community and drive-thru testing opportunities across the region, which can be found at ochsner.org/testing. If PCR tests are being administered, results can take up to 96 hours.

This press release was produced by the Jefferson Parish Government. The views expressed here are the author’s own.