Renzo Downey
Your local pharmacist could soon order and administer COVID-19 tests after an order by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
In a Friday press conference, the Governor announced he would direct Surgeon General Scott Rivkees to open up testing in pharmacies, the latest effort to expand testing in Florida
“With this direction, it’s my hope that pharmacies throughout the state consider how to offer COVID-19 testing,” he said. “The state of Florida stands ready to help, but that would make this much easier if we had those folks engaged in this where people could be able to get a test there.”
The Governor has been looking for ways to expand COVID-19 testing capacity as he looks for ways to reopen the state. Along with preemptive testing at nursing homes and contracts for more state-facilitated testing, expanding the places tests are available, like pharmacies, can only help the coronavirus response.
“We’ve got to figure out ways to make it as simple and accessible as possible,” he said.
DeSantis was uncertain whether only people with a doctor’s note or some kind of pre-approval could be tested or swabbed at a pharmacy. But if possible, he would want anyone who thinks they may have been exposed to get tested, as the state has started allowing at drive-thru and walk-in testing facilities across the state.
“If you’re not symptomatic but you think you may have been exposed, maybe someone you know or maybe you were just in an environment and you figured out that there may have been an outbreak somewhere, we want those people to be able to get in and get tested because that is really going to help us identify how much this disease has spread in different areas,” he said.
Scope of practice for pharmacists became a topic of contention during the 2020 Legislative Session. A bill signed last month by DeSantis allows pharmacists to test for and treat the flu, but other conditions included in prior versions didn’t make the cut.
COVID-19 entered Senate committee meeting discussion over pharmacist test and treat just as “coronavirus” entered the layman American vernacular. But lawmakers agreed testing for the coronavirus would be outside their scope.
Late Friday evening, the industry lauded the Governor’s move expanding pharmacist duties.
“Building off a recent effort to allow pharmacists to test and treat for flu and strep in Florida, the Governor took another important action by directing the state’s Surgeon General to allow licensed pharmacists to order and administer COVID-19 tests,” asserted Steven C. Anderson, President of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores.
