Airport officials have approved a proposal for COVID-19 testing inside the Tulsa International terminal.
Alpha Medical Laboratory will not be offering just rapid antigen tests.
"They will offer the antigen test if people require it, but they are saying they can turn around a PCR test in 25 minutes for just COVID. So, not only is it 99.9% accurate, it’s also 25 minutes, they’ll have those results," said Tulsa Airports Improvement Trust Director of Real Estate Jonathan Gobbo
Tulsa International Airport is poised to be the first in the country to offer on-site PCR testing for the coronavirus. Many health agencies around the world require a negative PCR test if travelers are going to avoid quarantine protocols.
Tulsa Airports CEO Alexis Higgins said there are other potential applications.
"We see a benefit of having the service on site is that all of our tenants can take advantage of testing their employees if that’s something that they want to do. I think establishing baselines, especially given the environment that we have today is so important with the asymptomatic spread," Higgins said.
The airport’s agreement with Alpha Medical gives the lab free space in the terminal for a share of their revenue. The lab will also offer COVID antibody, flu and respiratory virus testing. Testing will be available to ticketed passengers flying within three days. They will have to pay for tests upfront.
The airport plans for the lab to start testing Jan. 4.
