GREENSBORO, N.C. — The Greensboro Transit Agency is offering free COVID-19 testing at the J. Douglas Galyon Depot in downtown Greensboro for the next few months.
The testing is on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. in GTA Meeting Room. GTA partnered with Charlotte-based One Love Laboratory to do the testing, which is a mouth swab. Test results are sent electronically within 72 hours.
You don't need an appointment, but pre-registration is recommended.
"We do know there are several ways of getting the COVID numbers down, one, of course, is being masked up, also making sure to get vaccines and continuous testing," said Kevin Elwood, a representative for GTA. "So we are doing our part to make sure that our riders and operators are doing their part to be safe and help to finally get rid of COVID-19."
Elwood said the depot provides a great location for community testing.
"The J. Douglas Galyon Depot is centrally located (in) downtown Greensboro close to many businesses and of course, it is our central transportation hub," Elwood said. "We have people coming through from GTA riders, also PART Express, Greyhound, and Amtrak so all these people can have access to no-cost COVID test right here."
Cone Health officials said the hospital has seen testing demand go down over the last several weeks. At the beginning of January, Cone Health was doing about 4,000 tests per week. Last week, the hospital did a little more than 750 tests.
"We are still having multiple clinics throughout the community in Guilford, Rockingham, and Alamance County, just scaling back," said David Thompson, the assistant director of infectious diseases for Cone Health. "The demand (is) not there but we are still going to offer it. We don't want people to go to the ED and urgent care for testing. That's not the appropriate place to get a test right now."
Thompson said with more tests available, including home kits, and fewer people sick, the demand has gone down.
"I’ve had a lot of after-hours clinics in the evenings across the three counties (and) we’ve shut some of those down and (reduced) the hours of some of them," Thompson said. "At (North Carolina) A&T, I’ve been there every Monday through Friday and starting on (February) 21st, we’re actually going to offer testing on Monday, Wednesday, Friday only, and then we are going to offer testing in the evenings on Tuesdays and Thursdays in Guilford County."
You can get a COVID-19 test through Cone Health here.
Novant Health is working to increase access to testing by partnering with Ottendorf Laboratories at their Hanes Mall location in Winston-Salem. Beginning Feb. 14, 2022, the site will be open Monday thru Saturday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Appointments are not required. To make an appointment, call 919-390-2550 or go here.