After a week-long delay, three Nashville drive-thru coronavirus testing centers are expected to open next week using test materials provided by the state government, city health officials have announced.

The testing centers — at Nissan stadium, Meharry Medical College and an old K-Mart location on Murfreesboro Pike — will check residents for symptoms of the virus and collect throat and nose swab samples as needed.

The Nissan and Meharry sites will open Monday and the K-Mart location will follow on Wednesday. All three sites will operate from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, said Dr. Alex Jahangir, head of the city coronavirus task force.

The three centers have been ready to open for more than a week but could not do so because the city had no testing supplies. Mayor John Cooper announced Friday morning that Gov. Bill Lee and state officials would deliver supplies allowing the test sites to become “fully operational” within 72 hours.

“We look forward to receiving the testing supplies and opening these assessment centers to support our area hospitals,” Cooper said.

The new assessment centers will help protect a city that has reported more coronavirus cases and deaths than anywhere else in Tennessee. As of Friday, city officials had tallied 312 cases in the city and two virus-related deaths. The second death, recently confirmed, was a 67-year-old man with underlying health conditions.

Call the hotline, then go to test site

Nashville residents who think they may have the coronavirus are urged to first call the city’s coronavirus hotline — 615-862-7777 — to be screened over the phone for signs of the virus. The hotline may then direct you to one of the three testing sites, where medical staff will perform a more in-depth assessment to see if you qualify for a test.

If you do qualify, staff will collect a sample by swabbing your nose and throat, then sending that sample to a laboratory that will test for the virus.

These swabs were the linchpin to getting the assessment centers to open. Over the past week, city officials had repeatedly stressed that the test sites were built and prepped but did not have enough supplies to receive patients. As of Thursday, the city had collected enough protective equipment but was still desperately short on test swabs.

“The governor saw what we were doing and recognized why it is so important,” Jahangir said Friday. “And he and the entire unified command committed to getting us the swabs and using the full resources of the state to do so.”

Gillum Ferguson, a spokesman for the governor, confirmed that testing supplies will be provided to the city "imminently."

Jahangir stressed that the new city testing sites are designed to "augment" what is being done by doctors and hospitals throughout Davidson County, which have already conducted more than 3,500 tests. If everyone in Nashville relies purely on the city test instead of hospitals, the new assessment centers will be overwhelmed and the system “is not going to work,” he said.

The new test sites will be supplemented by a donation of swabs that was arranged, at least in part, by The Tennessean.

After reading about the supply shortage on Friday morning, Brad Thacker, a retired veterinarian, contacted the newspaper offering to donate hundreds of swabs in unopened boxes he had kept in storage. A journalist then connected the vet to city health officials, who later confirmed the donation would be collected in the coming days.

Brett Kelman is the health care reporter for The Tennessean. He can be reached at 615-259-8287 or at brett.kelman@tennessean.com. Follow him on Twitter at @brettkelman.