SAN ANTONIO – The City of San Antonio and Community Labs have decided to close four public PCR COVID-19 testing sites and continue to provide testing at three other locations.
The decision was made due to a decrease in demand for testing, a press release said.
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The following sites will close after 6 p.m. Thursday:
- Copernicus Community Center, 5003 Lord Rd., 78220
- Yates Community Center, 568 Rasa Drive, 78227
- St. Philip’s College, 1801 Martin Luther King Drive, 78203
- Melendrez Community Center, 5919 W. Commerce St., 78237
The locations will remain open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday:
- Divine Providence Catholic Church, 5667 Old Pearsall Rd., 78242
- Alamo Colleges District Support Operations Building, 2222 N. Alamo St., 78215
- Wonderland of the Americas, 4522 Fredericksburg Rd., 78201
Community Labs has conducted more than 60,400 screenings at nine public sites since January 2021, when the City of San Antonio/Metro Health and Bexar County asked the nonprofit organization to set up mass public testing locations as cases attributed to the omicron variant surged, the news release said.
In mid-January, Community Labs tested more than 6,000 people a day at its eight public testing locations. By early February, that number had dropped to about 600 people a day and last week, on Feb. 17, fewer than 200 people a day were seeking tests. The positivity rate at the public sites decreased from 53% in mid-January to about 14% currently. The positivity rate is specific to the Community Labs public testing locations and is not a measure of the larger population’s positivity rate.
“By no means does reducing the number of public testing sites mean COVID-19 is no longer a threat,” said Community Labs President Sal Webber. “We encourage everyone to heed the advice of the CDC and our own Metro Health authorities and get vaccinated and boosted as soon as possible. Community Labs will be here to serve our community through mass public testing as long as we are needed.”
Community Labs continues to provide PCR testing every week at more than 300 school campuses in 13 area school districts and at several local businesses. The nonprofit organization provides PCR, self-administered, lower nasal swab COVID-19 tests and delivers results within 24 hours. It recently launched a digital results tracker, which allows participants to track the status of their sample from collection to result.