Sonora Quest giving free COVID-19 and flu A/B testing for uninsured people in the state

As colder weather moves through Arizona, the cold and flu season is in full swing. To combat this issue Sonora Quest is offering free COVID-19 and influenza A/B testing for uninsured Arizonans.

Sonora Quest's initiative comes as cases of of influenza and covid cases rise during this time of the year.

 Onvida health tells us they’ve had a big surge of these cases over the past few weeks.

Sonora Quest is taking the initiative to combat respiratory illnesses by partnering with the CDC through their “Increasing Community Access to Testing" (ICATT) program.

Tom Leggett, the senior director of business development at Sonora Quest said “ the entire goal here was, as the name suggests to increase community access to testing specifically more for patients who don’t have insurance”

This program aims to ensure everyone, regardless of their financial situation has access to critical testing during this challenging season. Sonora quest says they do PCR testing… which they say is most accurate.

“and we have the capability to do that, it’s called a multiplex test where you’re testing different pathogens on the same swab so now patients can now access a covid anf flu test" says Leggett

With both COVID-19 and the flu circulating, Onvida health says it can be hard to tell the difference between the two. Thats why understanding symptoms is important. 

Erin Baaspace, the medical director of the emergency department at Onvida health said “sometimes it’s hard to tell, a lot of times we kind of have symptoms of an upper respiratory type infection with influenza a we see more sore throat and cough. Influenza b we see more g-I symptoms with that nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Both come with body aches and both come with pretty high fevers” 

If you’re interested in this free testing you can go to sonoraquest.com and go to their patient tab. From there you’ll be asks to answer questions about the symptoms you are experiencing.