Ochsner Health doing more COVID-19 tests this week in Ruston

Area residents who want to be tested for COVID-19 have another opportunity to do so beginning on Thursday.

Representatives of Ochsner Health System will be at the Lincoln Parish Library Events Center, located at 910 North Trenton St., Thursday and Friday of this week, and Monday through Thursday of next week to administer the nasal swab tests.

The tests are avail able to Louisiana residents age 2 and older who have no symptoms of respiratory ailment caused by the novel coronavirus. Though there are no out-of-pocket costs for the tests, participants should bring their insurance cards, if they’re insured.

Test results should be available within 24 to 72 hours, according to a press release from Ochsner Health.

Here’s the testing schedule:

• Thursday and Friday – 9 a.m. – 4 p.m.

• Monday and June 16 – 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.

• June 17 – 9 a.m. – 4 p.m.

• June 18 – 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.

The Ochsner testing is the second round of large-scale public COVID-19 tests offered in Lincoln Parish over the last several weeks.

Eight days of mobile self-testing sponsored by Louisiana Health Region 8, of which Lincoln Parish is a part, ended Friday.

During that time, 291 parish residents did the drive-thru test.

Meantime, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the parish, as recorded by the Louisiana Department of Health, continues to increase. As of noon Monday, the parish had 175 cases.

The almost daily jump in cases is “because of the testing,” parish Director of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness Kip Franklin said.

The case count is cumulative, meaning it dates back to March 22, the date the first two Lincoln Parish cases were confirmed.

So far, 17 parish residents have died from COVID-19.