SAN ANTONIO – Community Labs, an area nonprofit that has provided COVID-19 testing to the public, announced that it would be ending public screenings on Tuesday to focus on helping to support schools to an in-person learning model.
The company said in a news release that as the COVID-19 numbers dropped in the area public, all public testing sites—including the Cuellar Community Center and Ramirez Community Center—would be closed.
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The nonprofit said it would remain focused on helping schools safely return students and staff to their campuses by providing COVID-19 testing for local school districts, colleges and universities.
According to the company, since Sept. 2020, it has conducted more than 136,985 screenings at five public sites, including Cuellar and Ramirez Community Centers, the AT&T Center, Barshop Jewish Community Center and Rackspace Technology headquarters.
“Community Labs answered the call from the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District and Bexar County when our community was in crisis. I’m proud of how quickly our team was able to begin administering free, PCR COVID-19 screenings to quickly identify asymptomatic ‘silent spreaders,’ to help suppress the spread of the virus,” said Sal Webber, president of Community Labs. “We will continue to focus our efforts on what’s always been our primary mission: to support schools in their efforts to safely return students to on-campus learning.”
The company said it provides weekly testing at more than 230 local school campuses—many of which will continue to offer screenings for students and staff throughout the summer.
Additionally, the company said it tests at five private universities and recently added weekly screenings at Alamo Colleges District campuses.
“Community Labs has been a terrific partner in our efforts to suppress the spread of COVID-19 in the San Antonio area. Relying on a local, inexpensive nonprofit lab with the capability of providing PCR results in 24 hours has been a real asset,” said Dr. Junda Woo, Metro Health’s medical director.
Since the nonprofit’s creation, it has administered more than 800,000 COVID-19 tests at public sites, school campuses and businesses.