St. Luke’s Begins In-house COVID-19 Testing, Expands Hours

TWIN FALLS, Idaho (KLIX)-St. Luke's health system has begun in-house testing for novel coronavirus (COVID-19) with extended drive-up testing hours at several locations in Idaho.

St. Luke's announced Friday it began testing for COVID-19 at its own laboratories at several locations, reducing the amount of time it takes to get tests results back. Before, St. Luke's had been sending tests for the virus to the Idaho State Lab or to labs in Washington State and Utah, which could take up to three days before results returned. Now, once the testing system is fully operational, tests could come back in two to four hours.

Labs set up to test for the virus include Twin Falls, Ketchum, Boise, Meridian, Nampa and McCall. St. Luke's expected to stop sending tests to outside labs by Monday, April 20. The labs should be able to process upwards of 1,700 tests a day by May.

St. Luke's Magic Valley Medical Center has expanded testing to seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The drive-up testing center is located at the St. Luke's Surgery Center's parking lot.

South Central Public Health District has reported the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Twin Falls has hit 105 as of Monday. The health district said 65 of those cases are no longer being monitored. Between Jerome and Twin Falls county there have been 12 deaths attributed to the virus.