DOH Extends Free COVID-19 Testing Site in Centre County

The free COVID-19 testing site in Centre County will continue to operate through at least the end of next week, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

Testing will continue until at least until Saturday, Feb. 12 at the Centre County Recycling & Refuse Authority Interpretive Center, 253 Transfer Road, department officials said in a news release on Monday. It previously had been scheduled to end on Jan. 29.

Hours remain the same: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays. DOH operates the site in partnership with AMI Expeditionary Healthcare.

Mid-nasal passage swab PCR testing at free clinic is open to anyone age 3 or older on a first-come, first-served basis. No appointment is required and patients do not need to have COVID-19 symptoms to get tested. Patients are asked to bring ID.

It was not clear if the clinic — one of nine operated by DOH and AMI around the state — would continue beyond Feb. 12, but Acting Secretary of Health Keara Klinepeter said during a visit on Jan. 19 that sites are evaluated every two weeks.

“We continue to evaluate every two weeks our testing sites so we ensure we’re putting them in the parts of the commonwealth that have the greatest need,” she said. “That is really a data-driven decision but based on case counts that we’re seeing and demand that we’re seeing at this site, I do anticipate that we’ll extend that for longer.”

In late December and early January, the Centre County site saw long lines of people as testing reached and even exceeded the capacity of 450 per day, AMI program manager Rob Kovacic said. But since then, demand has steadily dropped, as have new cases locally and throughout the commonwealth.

Centre County’s seven-day moving average for new cases on Tuesday was 134, down from 234 a week ago and 264 two weeks ago. Pennsylvania’s was 10,639, down from 14,966 a week ago and 24,484 two weeks ago.

AMI has conducted free testing in Centre County since the fall of 2020.

After DOH funded a testing clinic at the Nittany Mall in September 2020, Centre County government used a portion of its CARES Act block grant funds, to contract with AMI to continue free testing beginning in October 2020, first inside the mall before moving in January 2021 to the former Comcast building at 1155 Benner Pike.

When the county’s last contract with AMI expired at the end of last March, DOH sponsored a long-term free walk-in clinic in Centre County, first at the Patton Township Municipal Building and then at the CCRRA before moving to Shiloh Road and then back to the CCRRA in January.