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CHESTERFIELD — Masked and gowned medical workers worked in a steady rain Saturday as people drove up to a Mercy Health parking lot in Chesterfield to be tested for the coronavirus. The workers took nasal swabs from people as they sat in their vehicles.

“It’s not an examination. It’s not a clinic. It’s a collection site,� said Donn Sorensen, executive vice president of the Mercy system, which announced Friday it would open the drive-thru site.

Within the first hour, the Mercy workers handled about 20 cars. The waits weren’t long. By 4 p.m., when the testing wrapped up for the day, about 50 people had been processed, Sorensen said.

On Sunday, hospital officials said they'd tested 52 people on Saturday. 

Most of the people in line for testing were alone in their vehicles. Most had Missouri license plates.

The testing process takes about 5 minutes and the people being swabbed were told the wait for results could be four to five days, but Mercy officials hoped for a faster turnaround. In the meantime, those tested were asked to self-quarantine.

Cathy Renth, director of patient logistics, was on-site to oversee the testing. She wore a light blue gown, gloves, goggles and a mask.

“I think our goal is to limit exposure,� she said. “If we have a lot of people exposed all at once, our hospitals will be overrun.� While Mercy and other health care systems have done a lot of work to prepare for that, “this is to limit the number of admissions.�

The swabs collected by Mercy are being sent to commercial and state labs for testing, and Mercy said they had faced no challenges in having the tests performed.

The tests cost about $100, Sorensen said, and most insurance companies along with Medicare and Medicaid have said they would cover it.

“We will file a claim, but we’re not asking for money� as people arrive at the drive-thru site, he said.

The Mercy site is testing patients who have been screened by Mercy’s coronavirus support line and meet certain criteria for symptoms and exposure: a fever of at least 100.4 degrees, respiratory symptoms including cough or shortness of breath, and recent travel to a high-risk area or contact with a known patient.

“I could not be more proud of these caregivers. They are like police and fire: They run toward the problem,� Sorensen said.

The testing, which is being conducted at 15740 South Outer Forty Road, outside of a Mercy telehealth building where patients are not seen, resumes Sunday. Before arriving, people must call Mercy’s COVID-19 Clinical Support Line at 314-251-0500.

‘Going to take time’

Experts say accelerating similar testing campaigns is vital, on a regional scale and beyond.

“We do not know enough about how many people in the United States are currently affected with this virus,� said Dr. Sarah George, a St. Louis University associate professor of infectious diseases, allergy, and immunology, in an interview Friday with the Post-Dispatch. “We’re missing a lot of cases because of inadequate testing. There’s probably a lot more out there than we know.... For every case you see, there’s multiple cases that you’re not seeing.�

The rhythms of day-to-day life will be different in the short-term future, George said, as society tries to grasp the scope of the problem — a process that she expects will consume the next several weeks.

Although she said “the horse is out of the barn� and that hopes for containing the virus are now dashed, it remains to be seen how widespread infections will become in St. Louis and the region. Tests will be the key method of identifying the progression of that “epidemic curve� and our control of it, she noted.

“Right now we’re still dealing with a shortage of test kits, but that’s gradually being rectified,� George said, adding that it will “certainly take weeks until we have a better sense of what’s going on.�

Places that have successfully managed coronavirus outbreaks have reinforced the importance of testing, alongside sound practices for quarantines, hygiene, and social distancing.

“There are countries and regions that have gotten this under control with very aggressive testing and quarantining,� said George.

She said a current estimate is that “maybe half the world will get this eventually,� but the rate at which coronavirus will spread is unclear. And that rate of transmission is key, since it threatens to overwhelm health care systems if uncontrolled.

“This is going to be beatable but it is going to take time,� said George. “It’s not going to happen overnight.�