New urgent care in Fresno offering COVID-19 tests

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- If you think you've been exposed to COVID-19 or are showing symptoms, there's a new place in town to get tested.

Accelerated Urgent Care recently opened its first Fresno location at Blackstone and Herndon and is already testing.

"Right now we're getting people back to work," says Dr. Dan Erickson. "A lot of the big companies are contacting me saying, 'I got a guy with a fever, but he works with 20. Can you please test him for COVID and send him back to work?'"

Testing is done here at Accelerated Urgent Care and sent off to the lab.

Dr. Erickson is the owner and says most insurance providers cover the cost while results take one to three days to come back, and anyone can make an appointment or walk in to get tested.

"A lot of people will have fever but they don't have coronavirus, they have a skin infection or pneumonia or an ear infection, so we examine you to see if there's something else going on and we test you for COVID to make sure that's not your issue," Dr. Erickson said.

Besides Fresno, Accelerated Urgent Care has a clinic in Temecula, and five in Kern County.

According to Dr. Erickson, more than 200 COVID-19 tests are administered every day across his seven facilities.

"You don't want coronavirus running through a hospital, so our role is to be the first line of defense and if someone is positive, to isolate them at home and not bring them into the hospital system unless their symptoms are getting a lot worse," Dr. Erickson said.

During a pandemic, clinics like these are crucial in developing an accurate count of positive cases.

"The only real requirement is that they need to be reporting their positive tests to the county so we can report to the state," says Dr. Rais Vohra with the Fresno County Health Department.

Accelerated also offers telemedicine, so you can video chat with a doctor to ask whether you should come in.

For more news coverage on the coronavirus and COVID-19 go to ABC30.com/coronavirus