Lexington adds free COVID-19 testing dates in East End; No appointment or insurance needed
More free COVID-19 testing is being made available in the East End of Lexington, the Lexington-Fayette County Health Department announced Monday.
The city announced last week that it would be offering free testing at Shiloh Baptist Church on East Fifth Street, and Monday additional testing dates at the church were announced.
Free testing provided by the city and the Lexington Division of Emergency Management will be available at the church Thursday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Friday from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3p.m.
Drive-ups or walk-ups will be accepted at 237 East Fifth Street and no appointment is necessary. To get to the testing site, go south on Elm Tree and turn right onto Fifth Street, according to the health department.
People wanting to be tested will be asked for insurance information, but the test will be free even without insurance, according to the health department.
The tests are being done by Bluewater Diagnostic Laboratory, which can process up to 1,000 tests a day, according to a release from Mayor Linda Gorton’s office.
Translation services will be available at the Shiloh Baptist Church testing site, and face masks and hand sanitizer will be provided to those tested, according to Gorton’s office.
During the three days of testing at the location last week, more than 1,226 people were tested.
Cases have been increasing in Lexington, and the cases continue to disproportionately affect Black and Hispanic people in the city, according to the health department’s release. Of 2,076 cases, 22 percent occurred in Black residents and 27 percent occurred in Hispanic residents. Those population groups make up 15 percent and 7 percent of Lexington’s population, respectively.
For more information, call the Lexington-Fayette County Health Department’s COVID-19 hotline at 859-899-2222.
Drive-thru testing also continues to be available seven days a week at the Walgreens testing location at 2296 Executive Drive. Registration is encouraged but not required.
Drive-thru testing is also availble through July at the Bluegrass Community & Technical College Newtown Campus by Kroger Health. That location is off Loudon Avenue near Newtown Pike. Testing at the location is by appointment, according to Gorton’s office.
This story was originally published July 13, 2020 at 4:49 PM.
