Palm Beach County opened its first COVID-19 drive through testing center for residents of Palm Beach County to be tested for the coronavirus on March 31. A central Palm Beach County location was identified and along with our partners, the Healthcare District of Palm Beach County, the Florida National Guard and the Florida Division of Emergency Management, the testing center was established at the FITTEAM Ballpark of the Palm Beaches, located within the city of West Palm Beach’s boundaries, at 5444 Haverhill Road. Since opening day, the Ballpark of the Palm Beaches site has tested 12,923 residents. There have been a total of 2,440 no shows at this site since March 31. Some of these no shows could have been late cancellations and it is important to note that testing kits set aside for those appointments are put back into inventory to allow for more testing.
Testing for south county residents began April 7 at the South County Civic Center in West Delray Beach. This site was the second drive through testing center opened with a partnership between Palm Beach County, Cleveland Clinic Florida, the Florida National Guard and the Florida Division of Emergency Management. To date, this site has performed over 3,546 COVID-19 tests with a total of 3,836 appointments.
On March 16, the Healthcare District of Palm Beach County opened up walk up sites in West Palm Beach, Belle Glade and Lantana. All sites are convenient for public transportation and did not require any type of appointment. The 45th Street location for COVID-19 testing transitioned once the Ballpark location was established. On April 22 a drive through lane was added to the Belle Glade site at Lakeside Medical Center. This site continues to offer both walk up and drive through testing to the residents of the Glades and to date has tested 1018 residents.
In an effort to increase walk up testing, the Healthcare District was requested by the County to reopen the clinic in West Palm Beach on 45th Street and open one in Jupiter on Indiantown Road. These clinics opened up on April 29 and April 30 respectively. They have already tested more than a hundred residents.
Beginning May 4, another walk up site will be available in Delray Beach in partnership with Healthcare District. The walk-up site at 225 South Congress Avenue began scheduling appointments for Monday, May 4th. Testing at this site is available by appointment Mondays through Fridays from 8 A.M. to Noon. All the walkup sites are accessible by public transportation which is free to these sites.
In addition to the many commercial, government and non-profit sites across the county, Palm Beach County Fire Rescue began setting up appointments and testing homebound residents this week. The first phase of the plan involves testing those residents who are on the county’s Special Needs Registry. The Fire Rescue teams will test approximately 135 residents by the end of this week. This is an ongoing process that is expected to take several days. Palm Beach County Fire Rescue has been training municipal fire rescue crews to assist in the homebound testing.
Testing for the government sites would not have been possible without the cooperation of the Florida Division of Emergency Management and their assistance in getting testing kits to keep the sites running at full capacity throughout the month of April and into May.
Below is a table of government sponsored testing sites in Palm Beach County