HOUSTON — There is a process that must be followed if you would like to be tested for coronavirus.
The process is not simple and involves many steps.
The CDC says the first thing a possibly infected person must do is call a doctor and warn the facility you are coming in advance for safety reasons.
Although the public has been discouraged from buying face masks, the CDC says one should be warned when a patient goes to his/her appointment.
After a patient is evaluated by a doctor for possible coronavirus infection, the doctor must contact the local health department to request approval for a test. Then the local health department must contact the CDC to request approval for the test.
If the test is approved, the doctor will tell the patient where to go to have his/her sample obtained.
Some Houston-area doctors say they have been directed to send their patients to local hospital emergency rooms to have their samples taken. Once the sample is obtained, it is sent to the CDC in Atlanta for testing.
The results should be available within a few days after it is sent.
Doctors say if primary care physicians refuse to see patients who believe they have coronavirus, and the individual is in respiratory distress, the sick person should go directly to a hospital emergency room.
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