JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The city of Jacksonville, in partnership with Logistics Health, will open a COVID-19 testing site Wednesday at the Mandarin Senior Center on Hartley Road.
Mayor Lenny Curry said the site will be open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. for the next six months.
During a news conference Tuesday afternoon, Curry also said Jacksonville will be “adding three more city contract locations very soon.” He said more information would be provided at coj.net/covid19testing.
Those are in addition to a new testing site that opened Monday in East Arlington and a new site that will open Thursday at the beaches. Those city sites will be operated in partnership with Telescope Health.
“As I told you months ago when we were allocating, appropriating dollars, we were going to expand testing to make sure the entire community had access, and that’s exactly what we’re doing right now,” Curry said.
The walk-up site inside the Jim Fortuna Senior Center at Ed Austin Park on McCormick Road in East Arlington will operate from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Wednesday for the next six months. Curry said the site conducted 125 tests on Monday.
Next, the team at that site will move to the beaches and operate a walk-up testing site at the former Kmart shopping center on Atlantic Boulevard in Neptune Beach. It will be open from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday through Saturday for the next six months.
The federal COVID-19 “surge” testing sites at First Coast High School on the Northside and Frank H. Peterson Academies on the Westside, which were originally slated to close at the end of Wednesday, will now remain open through 6 p.m. Friday.
The longest-running and largest testing site in Jacksonville -- Lot J outside TIAA Bank Field -- will close at 6 p.m. Wednesday. Lot J testing operations will then move to the site at the Regency Square Mall on Thursday. The Regency site, which was originally a federal site, which will remain open as a state-run testing site with an inside option at the old Sears building.
The mayor asked Jacksonville residents to take “personal responsibility” to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
“Please wear a mask or a cloth face covering when you’re in close contact with others, try to maintain safe social distance of 6 feet or more, wash your hands frequently, avoid large gatherings -- these are simple but effective steps we can all take to contribute to the fight against this pandemic. If you have any symptoms or have had direct contact with someone who’s positive, please stay home, self-isolate and get tested to prevent spreading this virus to vulnerable individuals,” he said.
“It’s important we all take these steps. This pandemic is unlike any we’ve seen, and these times are calling us to come together as one community, as one people to overcome this challenge. We’re all in this together, and together we’ll succeed.”