A free, three-day COVID-19 testing site is coming to a Fort Worth neighborhood, city officials announced.
The site is scheduled to take place at Maude I. Logan Elementary School at 2300 Dillard Street in the Stop Six neighborhood. Tests will be conducted July 6-8 between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. and will be operated by the state in partnership with the Fort Worth Emergency Operations Center.
The neighborhood is within District 5, which is represented by Councilwoman Gyna Bivens.
‘We know this is a densely populated neighborhood. We know people of color are dying from COVID-19, so I think, why not Stop Six? We’ve had too many people lose their lives because of COVID-19,” Bivens said. “It’s my understanding because it’s conducted by the state of Texas and city, that we would hope people from Fort Worth would come, but I don’t think there’s any address requirement at all.”
Testing is free, according to city officials. Neither an appointment or a doctor’s lab orders are required. However, the person being tested must have access to a phone due to test results being returned by phone call or text message.
The three-day site comes at a time county leaders say testing demand overall is increasing. Tarrant County Public Health Director Vinny Taneja told NBC 5, there are some days when about 1,500 people try to get tests through the county.
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“In the last week and a half, we’ve been out several times of appointments available through our website. We’re booked out almost a week ahead,” Taneja said.
The county is just one piece of the testing puzzle, Taneja added. Several private entities including Walmart, Kroger’s, Walgreens and CVS now also offer testing, he said.
“Here, we have mobile testing set up through Texas Department of Emergency Management and National Guard,” Taneja said. “We’re out of appointments some days. Some days we’re back, but the demand has been like 1,500 people a day trying to get an appointment so if we’re seeing that, imagine what’s happening to the private sector with all the large players there.”
Bivens said she hopes the pop-up site next week will offer people some options.
“If you have asthma, if you have hypertension, if you are diabetic...and those are illnesses that are quite dominant in this neighborhood, if you have either of those underlying conditions, you should seriously consider getting tested,” she said.
To access the COVID-19 testing site in Tarrant County, click here. Other COVID-19 testing sites in Texas can be accessed here.
