Duggan: Detroit now offering testing without prescriptions or symptoms

(FOX 2) - For the first time since it began, the city of Detroit is offering drive-thru testing for those without prescriptions or symptoms, officials announced Monday.

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said 500 appointments a day at the State Fairgrounds drive-thru testing site will be for people with appointments and 500 a day will be for people without prescriptions or symptoms.

Detroit offering testing regardless of prescription or symptoms

The city is offering testing for essential workers without a prescription or symptoms.

"Ultimately, I want everybody to get tested regardless," Duggan said.

The mayor said the city needs to recover economically as soon as possible, and testing people without symptoms is a big step.

On Friday, Duggan announced that Detroit is offering COVID-19 testing for any essential worker in the city. Businesses are instructed to call the city and they will be given a code for arranging tests at the drive-thru site at the State Fairgrounds. The mayor said they will begin calling those companies back in the next day or two to begin scheduling those appointments..

DETROIT NUMBERS UPDATE

According to Denise Fair, Chief Public Health Officer of the Detroit Health Department, there are 7,731 confirmed cases and 629 deaths in Detroit as of Monday.

NURSING HOME ISSUES

Duggan said there is still a huge COVID-19 problem with nursing homes across the city. As of Monday, there have been 119 deaths among residents and staff in nursing homes in Detroit.

The mayor said he would not be surprised if by the end of the COVID-19 chapter in Detroit, one out of four deaths happened in nursing homes.

The city continues to deliver PPE like masks and gloves to help fight the virus, and are running tests daily. Fair said the city has issued over 1,000 tests in 13 facilities.

Duggan said about 28-29% of all nursing home patients they test are positive. He said those without symptoms are testing positive at almost as high of a rate as those with symptoms. But with the 15-minute coronavirus tests from Abbott Laboratories, those people are being properly isolated.

DETROIT POLICE UPDATE

The mayor said over 900 Detroit police officers have returned to work thanks to testing. In the last seven days, only seven members of the Detroit Police Department have been quarantined.

In a department with 2,005 employees, they have only been averaging one quarantine a day. Duggan said this has to do with the medical guidance of Dr. Robert Dunne and the leadership within the department.