Testing sites working to meet the increased demand for COVID-19 tests

Originally published at Fox61

CONNECTICUT, USA — With 100 towns and cities now in the red alert zone, the demand for COVID-19 testing across the state has also increased.

“The demand for testing has really tripled I would say in the last two weeks,” said Yvette Highsmith Francis, regional vice president, for Community Health Center Inc.

They have expanded their hours at their testing site Rentschler Field in response.

“We are open from 8:30 to 4, recently we just started those hours this week. We are open five days a week we’re offering testing, no appointments are needed,” said Vanessa Briones, covid operations manager for Community Health Center Inc.

It’s one of several community-based testing sites offering free testing and working on pop-up mobile testing.

“We will go wherever we need to go to address the spike and the red alert and the orange alert communities,” said Highsmith Francis.

Hartford Healthcare’s testing site’s recent move to the Connecticut Convention Center came at the perfect time.

“It really gives us the right location to be able to do more testing on more people and the right facility to get us through the winter,” said Dr. Mitchell McClure, clinical executive leader for covid testing for Hartford Healthcare.

Anticipating a continued demand in the winter months, PhysicianOne Urgent Care is also preparing.

“We just received a new type of test that allows us to test for COVID-19 as well as influenza a and b with one swab,” said Stacy Beaupre, a physician assistant.Related Articles

The state is also keeping a close eye on the need and doing what it can to make sure everyone has access.

“We’re up to 238 testing sites in Connecticut we’ve added about 40 in the last week and a half,” said Josh Geballe, chief operating officer to Governor Lamont. “We’ve actually deployed 50 members of the National Guard to beef up the testing at some of the sites that are working to expand,” he said.

So far there doesn’t appear to be a supply issue but some testing sites are warning turnaround times for results may be a little longer, as well as the lines.

To find a testing site near you, you can check here.