Chattanooga's hospitals said, due to a surge of COVID-19 patients, they will discontinue COVID-19 tests to all but those with serious symptoms.
A joint statement was issued by CHI Memorial, Parkridge and Erlanger.
It says: "In order to best devote our Emergency Room staffs’ time to caring for the increasing number of patients with medical emergencies such as chest pain, difficulty breathing, stroke symptoms, or other conditions that require urgent medical attention, CHI Memorial, Erlanger Health System and Parkridge Health System will not be administering COVID-19 tests in the Emergency Room to patients with non-emergent symptoms such as runny nose, persistent cough, or change in taste or smell.
We will only be testing patients in the Emergency Room with more significant symptoms that would require hospitalization, such as worsening shortness of breath.
"We encourage those with mild symptoms, who are seeking COVID-19 testing, to visit their local health department’s website for testing site locations. We will continue treating everyone with emergent medical conditions in our local emergency rooms."