Cape Coral looking at self-administered COVID-19 tests

Cape Coral wants to help reduce the spread of COVID-19 by bringing you self-administered tests.

The city plans to add a testing van or kiosk on city property to make it easier for you to complete the test. Unlike those nose swabs, this test will be administered through the mouth.

Cape Coral intends to work with the company Curative, the same one that provides testing at CenturyLink. Many locals say they’re looking forward to testing, only if it means less drive time.

“We have a Pine Island Pandemic Task Force, and we’re trying to get testing out there, and one of the reasons is because it’s not convenient, we know a lot of people just don’t get tested,” said Eric McCrea of Pine Island.

“The more convenient you make it, the more people will go,” said Lewis Jeffery of Cape Coral.

But will the tests be accurate enough if we have to test ourselves?

Dr. Jeffrey Collins, chief medical officer at MD Now Urgent Care, says one of the main issues with testing altogether is that it can take anywhere from two days to two weeks for a person to show symptoms, so if you do the test too early, you miss a lot of people with symptoms.

“What you want from a screening test in a public health emergency is something as low-cost, as accurate as possible, and it can be done either as a point-of-care test in an urgent care center or an emergency room or at home,” Collins said. “And so if you have those things, you’ll sacrifice a little bit of accuracy for being able to do a lot more testing.”

Another question that comes into play is cost: The city says the test is already covered if you have health insurance. If you don’t, it can be covered through a grant.