Rite Aid says it will begin offering coronavirus tests Thursday at 4 Sacramento-area stores
Rite Aid will begin offering testing for COVID-19 Thursday at nearly 100 locations in California, four of them in the Sacramento region, as part of its partnership with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, company officials announced Wednesday.
However, it’s unclear how quickly the chain will be able to report back with testing results. Officials with the California Department of Public Health said earlier this month that commercial labs were “becoming overwhelmed with large volumes of specimens, slowing down processing timelines” nationwide and some people were waiting a week for results.
All told, Rite Aid will now offer the tests at 258 locations in 13 states across the nation, and they will have the capacity to run 94,000 tests a week. The California sites will come online Thursday, along with pharmacies in Oregon and Washington.
The company also expanded the number of pharmacies in 10 states where it was already offering testing. Those states are Idaho, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
In the Sacramento region, residents can go to drive-through windows in stores at 7211 Elk Grove Blvd. in Elk Grove, 6420 Rio Linda Blvd. in Rio Linda, 5610 Stockton Blvd. in Sacramento, and 295 W. Main St. in Woodland. There, a pharmacist will direct them on how to take their own nasal specimen and properly package it for shipping and testing.
Further down in the Central Valley, Rite Aid will also be doing testing in Fresno, Merced, Modesto, Stockton, Tracy and Turlock starting Thursday.
The tests will be conducted 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Rite Aid officials said. To get a test, customers must schedule them at riteaid.com.
CVS Health also has been expanding testing at its drive-through sites in the Sacramento area and around the nation.
This story was originally published July 15, 2020 at 12:27 PM.
