Rite Aid expands Covid-19 self-swab, drive-thru testing with seven new locations

The company announced Saturday additional site locations will be opening on April 20 in New York, New Jersey, Michigan and Ohio, through its partnership with the US Department of Health and Human Services.

The drugstore chain began piloting its first Covid-19 testing site in Philadelphia on March 22. Since then, Rite Aid has added a total of 12 testing sites. The company says it expects to open additional locations soon in Delaware, Idaho, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

Each drive-up location is open seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and employs self-swab nasal tests supervised by Rite Aid pharmacists. Testing is administered in the stores' parking lots and requires all participants to remain in their vehicles. Rite Aid says it expects to conduct roughly 200 tests each day per location.

Patients are required to pre-register, answer screening questions and schedule an appointment on the Rite Aid website before driving up for testing. Testing is available at no cost for eligible candidates who meet criteria established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the company says.

"We're really trying to make sure patients are educated about what's going to happen when they arrive and then once they're on site, we're here to help," said company spokesperson, Christopher Savarese.

Covid-19 lab testing for all drive-up locations will be conducted by BioReference Laboratories and PWNHealth, a national clinician network that enables safe and easy access to diagnostic testing, will provide clinical oversight for the testing program.

Test screening, scheduling and patient's results will be facilitated through a partnership with Verily's Project Baseline. Verily is a subsidiary of Google's parent company Alphabet. The screening website states testing is "not intended for people experiencing severe symptoms," which include severe cough, severe shortness of breath, severe fever, or other symptoms that may require immediate medical attention.

In the US alone, there have been more than 716,000 reported cases of Covid-19 and 37,650 deaths, according to data from John Hopkins University.