Test-Nebraska site opens in Lincoln

A Test-Nebraska site opened Friday in the Capital City.

Staffed by CHI Health and Nebraska National Guard, the site at the Lancaster County Event Center is set to be there through the end of the week. Governor Pete Ricketts has been urging Nebraskans to sign up for testing through

The governor's goal is to test 3,000 a day in Nebraska. This is working toward a total of 500,000 tests in Nebraska

"Nebraska citizens, mostly from Lincoln and surrounding areas are coming to get swabbed for COVID testing," said Cole Mazurek, with CHI Health St. Elizabeth.

People drive into the site with their windows up in half-hour increments to get swab tested, after being recommended by their Test Nebraska assessment.

"It's really based on somebody's age, whether they're symptomatic, or showing symptoms consistent with what we see with COVID, other commodities they may have," Mazurek said.

Outside, the National Guard directed cars and inside nearly 15 professions from CHI Health were swabbing patients, bagging their samples, sanitizing their gloves and repeating.

"We are continually evaluating, in cooperation with the state, hot spots and locations that make sense to continue to test," Mazurek said. "Given the population here in Lincoln... we're trying to blanket the state with testing appropriately."

This group is one of six National Guard Teams on the ground helping at testing centers.

The goal of testing sites like this, and the ones in Omaha and Grand Island that opened this week, is that it will lead to more accurate information to aid in reopening and protecting people of Nebraska.

"Really understanding how this pandemic is affecting our community really helps public and city officials to best manage how we open things back up," Mazurek said.

The tests from Friday will be taken to the CHI Lab in Lincoln and processed, which can take anywhere between 48 and 72 hours.