A new COVID-19 testing site is coming to downtown Bloomington by the end of the month.
The Monroe County Health Department said it will fund the site with a small grant from the state health department, as well as contributions from the City of Bloomington and IU.
“The state came to the local health departments late this summer to offer some seed money for community testing sites,” said county health administrator Penny Caudill. “When we brought that to the Monroe County Commissioners and to the city, they were in right away.”
Caudill said the current OptumServe testing site at the National Guard Armory will be available through October.
“But I don’t know how much longer after that, and we wanted to ensure that testing was available,” Caudill said.
In May, the state contracted with OptumServe to set up the first public testing site in Monroe County. Since then, the site has served more than 15,000 people and conducted 21,000 tests, according to a county press release.
Caudill said OptumServe’s contract with the state runs on a month-by-month basis and it’s unclear how much longer that contract will last.
“We do not know if it will be renewed for November or not,” Caudill said. “They [the state] have indicated at some point this year that they will not be using all of the sites and will start closing some of them.”
The new testing site will operate until at least June 2021 and is expected to test around 200 people per day by appointment.
Caudill said the site will not offer rapid testing because the grant is not large enough to cover those costs.
“That’s not part of the grant agreement, but the state will be providing the tests, the couriers and the lab fees,” Caudill said.
The site’s location, hours of operation, and appointment registration will be announced in the next few weeks.
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