WINDSOR LOCKS, Conn. — A new drive-thru testing site opened at Bradley International Airport Monday morning.
The site is located in Parking Lot 3, and it’s open daily from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
The site is a partnership between Hartford HealthCare and the Connecticut Airport Authority.
“We’ve seen a remarkable increase in overall demand,” said Dr. James Cardon with Hartford HealthCare. “We’re approaching now almost 500,000 tests since we started our testing program back in march. We’ve done a quarter of those tests in just the last four weeks.”
The drive-thru site is open to the public and testing is free to the patient.
Results are expected in 72 hours.
People also do not need to pre-register and a doctor’s note is not required. However, Dr. Cardon suggests that people do plan ahead and register in advance.
“We’re trying to load level if you will across the tests given the extreme increase both in terms of test positivity and the people interested for a test, so we’re doing our best and registration helps us do that to some rate to try to keep the lines as short as possible,” said Dr. Cardon.
The new site opened as Bradley sees an uptick in travelers with the start of the holiday season.
“About 38 percent more than we have seen over the last four weeks or so. However, if you compare to what we see this time last year for Thanksgiving travel, we’re down about 65 percent,” said Alisa Sisic, public information officer for the Connecticut Airport Authority.
Anyone traveling from a state on Connecticut’s travel advisory list must self-quarantine for 14 days.
People can be exempted from the quarantine if they’ve tested negative 72 hours before arriving in Connecticut or at any time after arriving.
Written proof of the negative test result needs to be submitted to the Commissioner of Public Health.
However, the CDC stresses that a negative test does not mean that you were not exposed to COVID-19 or that you will not develop COVID-19.