The Maury County Health Department is stepping up its efforts to provide local testing for COVID-19 by offering free drive-thru tests to residents this Saturday at Woodland Park.

The testing will be offered from 9 a.m. to noon at the park, located at 821 W. 9th St. Testing will also be offered next Saturday, April 25 with the same hours.

“Anyone with health concerns, or who has concerns about the health of a family member, is invited to come to this location this weekend to receive testing for COVID-19,” Maury County Public Health Director Andrew Kenney said in a press release. “This testing will be provided at no cost to participants, and those who come for testing can remain in their vehicles throughout the process.”

The testing process is simple, with those arriving to the park remaining in their cars as nurses and/or National Guard medics assess each patient. Participants will then be asked a series of questions related to COVID-19 symptoms before receiving a nasal swab.

Test results are likely to be available within 72 hours after the samples arrive at the testing lab, depending on the volume of tests conducted. Maury County Health Department spokesperson Madison Toney said the focus is to pinpoint positive cases, and that those with positive results will be contacted by the health department first.

“We don’t know what the turnout is going to be, so be prepared to wait if we have a large turnout,” Toney said. “In addition to this event, there are plans in place to continue these events later. We’re using this one to sort of see what kind of a turnout will be there, and potentially what we can do to provide more in the future, and as those continue to be planned we will continue to push that information out to the public.”

Toney added that testing is still readily available at the Maury County Health Department, located at 1909 Hampshire Pike, anytime between 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday-Friday. Testing is still free for anyone, whether insured or uninsured. The department wants to focus on uninsured patients first, but she said anyone is welcome to stop by if they think they are showing symptoms and wish to be tested.

“We do like to target the uninsured or under-insured populations, but we won’t turn anybody away who comes to our health departments,” she said. “And that’s any health department in Tennessee, not just Maury County.”

Anyone with questions related to COVID-19 testing are encouraged to call the Maury County Health Department at (931) 388-5757. The Tennessee Coronavirus Public Information Lines are also open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily at (833) 556-2476 or (877) 857-2945.

The Tennessee Department of Health (TDH) also posts updated county-by-county COVID-19 case numbers at 2 p.m. every day at www.tn.gov/health/cedep/ncov.html. Any additional information can be found at www.tn.gov/governor/covid-19.html or www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html.

As of Thursday’s report from TDH, 33 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in Maury County, an increase of only four cases in the last week. TDH has also reported that 24 of those cases are patients who have recovered from the virus, leaving only nine currently active.

Mayor Chaz Molder said this is evidence that the public has been abiding by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommendations in regard to social distancing and self-quarantine. This weekend’s testing will also hopefully provide a truer, up-to-date status on exactly how many COVID-19 cases are currently active in Maury County.

“The important thing is that the Maury County Health Department has been providing these tests at their facility over the last several weeks for free, and it’s important for people to know this is available,” Molder said. “We like this offsite option because it’s, basically, bringing it to the people. This is providing the greatest access, and testing is important because a lot of people could have this virus, but are asymptomatic.”

Molder added that the city will continue to provide up-to-date information as it is received and made public, with daily updates available at his Mayor Chaz Molder Facebook page, as well as through the Maury County Health Department.

“This has been our best seven-day span since they started making the reports, and I feel very encouraged by the numbers. I feel as though the efforts that we’ve made in this community have started to reap reward, with the reward being fewer cases,” Molder said. “Now, the question is are there fewer cases truly because there are fewer cases, or are there fewer cases because there is not enough testing? Now that we have the tests available, this is really our opportunity to truly gauge where the community is.”

He also pointed out that no cases have been confirmed in any Maury County nursing home, the demographic most at-risk for death as a result of the COVID-19 virus.

“Maury County does not have any nursing home, or assisted living facilities in the county, that has had any confirmed cases,” Molder said. “Once you get one case in those facilities, there’s unfortunately a domino effect of additional cases. I’m pleased that we’re holding our own in that area as well.”