JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Two COVID-19 testing sites in Jacksonville have shut their doors.
The only two government coronavirus testing and vaccination sites that were still open in the city — located at Clanzel T. Brown Community Center at 4575 Moncrief Road on the Northside and Lane Wiley Senior Center at 6710 Wiley Road on the Westside — closed Friday.
With those two Agape Family Health-run sites closed, that means your only options are going to be going to a doctor or a pharmacy, or taking an at-home test.
The government has home tests available that can be delivered to you free of charge through the United States Postal Service. You can order them at covid.gov.
Also, if you need to be tested, you can go to the Florida Department of Health in Duval County’s Central Health Plaza at 515 West 6th St. in the Springfield area. There is testing if you’re a client there.
The only city-funded testing site, which is run by Telescope Health, is in Neptune Beach at 450 Atlantic Blvd. — next to the former Kmart. It will remain open.
About two years ago, long lines of people could be seen waiting in line for hours to get tested at public health sites. Since then, the demand for government-run testing has dropped considerably, and the availability of home tests has basically made these sites obsolete in Jacksonville.
The official COVID-19 case count in Florida has been steady in the past month, with no dramatic increase. But health officials admit that many people are not reporting cases and that the count is actually much higher.