State officials figuring out how to run testing sites over winter
Photo | Grant Welker
Vehicles line up at a coronavirus testing site run by UMass Memorial Health Care in Worcester.
Massachusetts officials are looking at how to reconfigure COVID-19 testing efforts to respond to the current distribution of cases around the state and prepare for winter weather, Gov. Charlie Baker said Tuesday.
More than 8.4 million COVID-19 tests had been administered in Massachusetts as of Monday, and the Baker administration recommends getting tested for the virus as part of a series of measures to help limit spread of COVID-19, along with practicing social distancing, wearing masks and maintaining good hygiene.
There are more than 275 locations — including hospitals, pharmacies and urgent care centers — in Massachusetts offering COVID-19 testing, according to a list maintained by the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency. Criteria vary by site, with some requiring appointments, doctor's referrals, or a pre-existing patient relationship.
The state set up testing sites through its "Stop the Spread" program, which offers free testing to Massachusetts residents, including those who do not have COVID-19 symptoms, in 18 communities that had been identified as hotspots for the virus, including Framingham, Marlborough and Worcester.
[Related: First vaccines could arrive in Mass. this month, Baker says]
Lawmakers from Cape Cod and Western Massachusetts have criticized the geographical distribution of the state-run sites, describing "testing deserts" that can force their constituents to travel long distances or face lengthy wait-times when seeking a test.
Asked during a Tuesday press conference if there were plans to open additional test sites in those regions, Baker said the state is "in the process of doing two things" around testing.
"Number one, figuring out what we think our distribution of testing capacity needs to look like given the changing nature of where cases have gone around the commonwealth," he said. "And then the second is, recognizing and understanding that winter's coming, we may need some capacity to ensure that the testing sites that we do have can survive snowstorms and super cold weather and a lot of the things that we really haven't had to deal with since we put these up last spring."
Many test sites are set up outdoors in parks and parking lots, where individuals walk or drive up to a health care provider.
Baker said Tuesday that "before we make the big decisions about how to do things like deploy the Guard," he wants to see if a pre-Thanksgiving surge in testing volume tapers off now that the holiday has passed, along with the travel and family gatherings associated with it.
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