Latvia to have more COVID-19 testing locations

Take note – story published 3 years ago

Five more COVID-19 testing points will be opened in Riga in the coming days, and regionally there will also be more locations, Latvian Television reported October 26.

Since Monday, COVID-19 tests can be carried out for free only with a GP's referral. If one wants to do the test without a referral, one may do so, but must pay themselves. Price starts at EUR 38.

This was implemented to reduce test queues from six days to two. That does not happen in one day, as proven by the number of calls to the joint line 8303 - by Monday noon, there had already been 1,700 calls. It is hoped that the queues will gradually decrease over a week.

Currently, a test can be done at 83 locations in Latvia. The National Scientific Insititute BIOR representative Olga Valciņa said that the capacity of one testing point is 120 people a day. 

Laboratory network coordinators are contemplating increasing capacity of the existing locations and opening new ones. On Tuesday, October 27, a testing point will start work on Hipokrāta Street in Gaiļezers hospital. On Wednesday, October 28, a second testing point will be opened in the BIOR area, three will start work in a private laboratory and one at the Oncology Center.  Many regions also plan to open new testing points, including Daugavpils, Jelgava, Valmiera, Jēkabpils and elsewhere. 

Seen a mistake?

Select text and press Ctrl+Enter to send a suggested correction to the editor

Select text and press Report a mistake to send a suggested correction to the editor

Related articles

More

Most important