BATON ROUGE, La (BRPROUD) — Members of the Louisiana Army National Guard are on duty operating no cost COVID-19 testing sites this week across the state.
Health experts said with new variants of the virus, getting a test now is more important than ever.
“Absolutely, 100 percent right now. We can’t let our focus sway from the fact that we have to do what we can and testing is one of the proven methods that we have to help control the spread of the disease,” said Kelley Finwall, Interim Testing Manager for Louisiana.
There are 17 fixed COVID testing sites operated by the guard. Many of them are on university campuses like LSU and Southern.
One location is Cortana Mall. It was a surge testing site last summer, but it’s not seeing the traffic it saw then.
This testing push comes as the Department of Health announced 406 vaccine providers across the state will receive very limited doses of the COVID vaccine.
That’s an increase, but the supply can’t keep up with the demand.
“We’re encouraged by the high demand, but the reality is, is that we’re not quite there yet. We have to continue to do all the same things we have been doing that have worked. You know, social distancing, wearing masks, washing your hands,” said Finwall.
The list of COVID-19 testing sites can be found here.
No cost testing is also available at select Walgreen’s stores. You can find those testing sites here.
You can take a look at the COVID-19 numbers for Louisiana and any of the 64 parishes here.
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