Fifteen minutes before its scheduled start time, cars were lined up in wait at the Moniteau County Health Center for Thursday's free drive-thru coronavirus testing clinic.
Moniteau County has seen 16 new active cases of COVID-19 since the end of June, bringing the total number of cases since the start of the pandemic to 74. The two newest cases were reported Tuesday, and one current active case has been admitted to the hospital.
Darrell Hendrickson, environmental specialist with the Moniteau County Health Department, said the clinic wasn't planned and was a reaction to the jump in cases seen in the county since early last week.
"We had an opportunity to do it and figured we'd better jump on it," Hendrickson said.
Hendrickson said the clinic had the capacity to test approximately 153 individuals during its two-hour window - he said this was the high number aim for Thursday, mirroring the roughly 160 tests performed during last month's Department of Health and Senior Services testing event facilitated by the Missouri National Guard.
Health Center Administrator Andrea Kincaid said there are not yet any other COVID-19 testing events planned in California for the near future, since Thursday's event was a reactive event with a two-day turnaround from conception to execution.
According to information shared by the Health Center prior to Thursday's clinic, SSM Health will have results from this week's testing by Saturday, after which it will be relayed to public health officials with Moniteau County.