Verily details drive-through COVID-19 testing in new video

Nearly a week and a half after Google’s sister company Verily launched its COVID-19 screening and testing website, the company has published a video of its in-person drive-through testing process. As the video explains, anyone looking to be tested first has to take an online screening questionnaire, the details of which were revealed last week when the website launched. The screener is designed to help prioritize testing. The criteria include exposure to existing cases of the virus, current symptoms, age, previous health conditions, and at-risk locations or occupations.

Those criteria determine whether you qualify. If you qualify for testing, you’ll get a reference ID number and appointment details, including the time and location. Then, you’ll head to the testing site, which consists of three stations. At the first station, you’ll get your ID and reference ID checked through the closed window of your vehicle to prevent possible infection.

Once confirmed, you’ll drive to the second station, which will match your ID to a lab kit. Then you’ll head to the final station, where you’ll receive a nasal swab. That sample will get sent to a lab, with results delivered between two to four days later. Right now, Verily’s Project Baseline testing is still limited to just Santa Clara, San Mateo, Riverside, and Sacramento counties.

As the video notes, Verily’s website and testing process is part of the larger, California-based COVID-19 testing program, which is a “state-directed program with federal input. ” Despite muddled statements from the White House regarding a Google-built screening website earlier in March, it’s not clear that Verily has plans to expand the program beyond California, or even whether the Verily Project Baseline site was the Google website that President Trump had been referring to at the time. Correction: Verily has expanded testing on March 23rd to Riverside and Sacramento Counties, not just the Bay Area as this article originally claimed.