Mohegan — Having effectively dealt with the pandemic’s potential threat to casino employees and patrons as well as to tribal members, the Mohegan Tribe, in partnership with Yale New Haven Health, has launched a drive-thru COVID-19 specimen-collection station that’s open to the public.

Located outside the Thames Garage Bus Lobby at Mohegan Sun, the site opened without fanfare last week and has been collecting 70 to 90 samples a day, according to site leader Alexandra Horwitz, a Yale New Haven Health registered nurse. She was directing a six-person staff at the site Tuesday morning — four members from Yale New Haven Health and two members of the Connecticut Air National Guard’s 103rd Airlift Wing at Bradley International Airport.

“We’re all over the state,” Staff Sgt. Corey Brennan said. “Yale requested some help here. We’re swabbing, bagging, handling supplies ...”

As of this coming Sunday, the site will be open from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week. Patients must schedule an appointment, either through a doctor or by going online to covidtesting2.ynhhs.org. They can either open a MyChart account or schedule an appointment as a “guest” and get help opening a MyChart account at the test site, Horwitz said. Specimens collected are sent to Yale laboratories in New Haven, where results are posted on MyChart in two to three days.

The nostril swabs taken at the site are not the deep, especially invasive ones that were common earlier in the pandemic, Horwitz said.

The site will provide testing of symptomatic and asymptomatic patients regardless of whether they have insurance, the tribe said. Children under 18 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian, and all adults over 18 must bring a photo ID. Masks are required.

Jeff Hamilton, president and general manager of Mohegan Sun, said Mohegan Sun began testing its employees through the tribe’s collaboration with Yale New Haven Health and Lawrence + Memorial Hospital, a Yale New Haven Health affiliate, as soon as the casino reopened June 1 following a pandemic-induced shutdown.

“We saw an opportunity, through the partnership, to provide team members (employees), tribal members and the general public with quick, easy access to testing,” he said. “Our customers want to be sure we’re doing our part. Certainly, we have the infrastructure to launch a testing site.”

Recent reports of long lines at COVID-19 testing sites in the region reflect the demand for testing, which has been heightened by the requirements of contact tracing, Hamilton said.

If a Mohegan Sun employee tests positive for COVID-19, the tribal health department seeks to locate that person’s close contacts during the period beginning five days before either the positive test or the first sign of symptoms — a stricter standard than the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends, according to Hamilton.

A contact is defined as anyone who spent at least 10 minutes within 6 feet of a person who tests positive.

“We ask that contacts quarantine for 14 days but we wait seven days from the date of the contact before we get them tested,” Hamilton said. “We found you get a more accurate, reliable result if you wait.”

While many employees have had to quarantine due to the requirements of contact tracing, “a very, very small percentage” have tested positive, Hamilton said, and little — “almost no” — transmission of the disease has taken place on casino property.

He said Mohegan Sun has continued to pay employees who quarantine, a policy that has cost the casino “hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

The tribe’s collaboration with Yale New Haven Health also involves construction of an 8,500-square-foot health center off Sandy Desert Road, site of a former tribe-owned restaurant. When completed next year, the center will provide primary, walk-in and specialty care for Mohegan Sun employees and visitors, tribal members and the public.

b.hallenbeck@theday.com