The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said on Tuesday there would be temporary free COVID-19 testing in three cities in Florida, Louisiana and Texas as the U.S. states tackle surging cases and hospitalizations.
The cities of Jacksonville, Baton Rouge and Edinburg, could benefit from the testing to identify new cases, especially for people who are asymptomatic, the agency said.
The move comes at a time when several states including Florida, Texas and California are witnessing high infection rates as a percentage of diagnostic tests conducted over the past week.
HHS will be partnering with local communities and eTrueNorth, a U.S.-based company operating a network of clinical labs to help with the testing.
The temporary “surge testing” sites will be live anywhere from five to 12 days and testing will be available to non-residents of the communities.
The sites will offer 5,000 tests per city every day, the agency said.
(Reporting by Manojna Maddipatla in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)
