COVID-19 testing is now becoming widely available as patients have increased access to multiple types of testing. However, many patients may not be entirely sure how they can book testing and what types of tests they may need.
The good news is that AFC Urgent Care Warrington offers COVID-19 testing for patients and antibody testing for patients that need to get tested right away. While some clinics don’t have accessible testing and screening, AFC Warrington provides tests for patients through telemedicine urgent care visits and screenings before they come in. Our team works to ensure that all patients can safely get tested with extra sanitation procedures at our clinic, use of personal protective equipment (PPE), and CDC guidelines for patient contact and social distancing.
Even though our providers will guide you through the process it helps if patients understand the available types of COVID testing. High-risk patients may benefit from certain types of testing while low-risk and asymptomatic patients benefit from other tests and exams. If you want to quickly learn both types of coronavirus testing, keep reading. If you need to book COVID-19 testing at a nearby provider, then just call us or visit our home page to book today.
COVID-19 Swab Testing is to detect active infections
A COVID-19 swab test is useful for detecting active COVID-19 infections among infected patients. Swab testing, or PCR testing, helps providers to not only detect active infections but also to track the number of current coronavirus cases in the United States and locally. Patients that have the following symptoms or infection risks benefit from COVID-19 testing and screenings:
- Contact with someone who tested positive in the last 14 days
- Recent travel to an international or national COVID-19 hotspot with high number of cases
- Sneezing, coughing, and congestion
- Fatigue and fever
Patients that have any or all of the above symptoms and risk should schedule a swab test ASAP to then determine their next steps for treatment and quarantine.
Antibody Testing detects coronavirus immunity
Antibody testing, or serology testing, is the detection of COVID-19 antibodies produced by the patient. The presence of antibodies means that a patient successfully recovered from a previous coronavirus infection and has some form of immunity. The reason public health experts say “limited immunity” is because epidemiologists are still determining how infectious the virus can be later on and if it mutates, which can mean re-infection.
An antibody test is useful for patients that know they’ve had a previous COVID-19 infection or if they recovered from COVID and flu-like symptoms. Antibody tests are a great follow up from quarantine for both high risk and low-risk patients. However, patients that are at high risk for fatal coronavirus symptoms likely require ambulatory and hospital care. Antibody tests are very useful for patients that recovered and are evaluating a potential return-to-work timeline.
