With COVID-19 cases resurgent across the state, regional sites where Massachusetts residents can be tested for free — and without needing to schedule appointments — will continue to operate into the fall.
The “Stop the Spread” COVID-19 testing site remains running at the Mullins Center at the University of Massachusetts, though it will soon be moving to the lower level of the Campus Center.
“For the foreseeable future, we will keep the site open and will be serving the campus community and the public,” said UMass spokesman Edward Blaguszewski.
People can drop in or schedule an appointment for Mondays and Thursdays from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Results are typically provided within 24 to 36 hours.
At Holyoke Community College, the testing site under the auspices of the Holyoke Board of Health, initiated in August 2020, has been extended through October.
This drive-thru, first-come, first-served testing site operates six days a week in Parking Lot M by the Bartley Center for Athletics & Recreation. The hours are from 7 to 11 a.m. Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, and from 2 to 7 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursdays.
Results are returned within four days. Drivers should enter the campus from Homestead Avenue, turn right onto the Campus Road and proceed to the parking lot. Signs and parking attendants help guide drivers.
A walk-in clinic in Holyoke also continues to operate at the War Memorial at 310 Appleton St. Testing hours there are Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 3 to 6 p.m.
The state has seen a significant increase in tests administered in recent days, with the latest COVID-19 dashboard, released on Aug. 6, showing 45,089 molecular tests. That is almost four times as many tests as the state reported on June 20, when 11,929 were completed, though still well short of the 102,610 tests administered Dec. 30.
Blaguszewski said he is unsure how long the testing site will stay at UMass, but the move to the Campus Center puts it next to where COVID-19 vaccine clinics are run, also by the Public Health Promotion Center. “We think that will work well,” Blaguszewski said.
There will still be a robust capacity to test when the fall semester begins, though the requirement that faced all students last spring to be tested regularly no longer exists, Blaguszewski said. Only students who have an exemption from being vaccinated will be tested.
“If they have an exemption from vaccination, then testing is accompanying that exemption,” Blaguszewski said.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
