A drive-thru COVID-19 testing center has opened at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium that has hosted six NFL Superbowl games on Sunday.
The testing site is set up in the parking lot of the sprawling stadium, home to the NFL Miami Dolphins, that has space for 26,718 cars.
The site will provide testing from 11am to 3pm on Sunday to first responders and healthcare workers including firefighters, law enforcement, corrections workers and medical staff.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis confirmed the site on Saturday and is slated to visit the Miami Gardens stadium on Sunday.
‘Broward, Dade and Palm Beach, almost 50% of the cases in Florida are in those areas,’ DeSantis said Saturday. ‘The Miami-Dade site is due at Hard Rock Stadium.’
A drive-thru COVID-19 testing center has opened at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium that has hosted six NFL Superbowl games on Sunday. The drive-thru facility pictured being set up on Friday in Miami Gardens
Pitched tents and traffic cones pictured at the Hard Rock Stadium coronavirus testing center on Friday. The parking lot of the stadium has space to hold over 26,000 cars
The site will be open to first responders and healthcare workers only on Sunday and will then open to the general public on Monday for people over the age of 65 or health care workers
Nurses will be on site to screen people for eligibility and people who do not meet testing criteria will be turned away. The Florida Army National Guard will then conduct nasal swabs and the test results will be available in about 48 to 72 hours
The testing site will be run by National Guard members and medical personnel
As of Sunday morning there are 763 cases of coronavirus in Florida and there have been at least 12 deaths
The exterior of the Hard Rock Stadium, that hosted six NFL Superbowl finals, pictured above
On Monday the testing site will be open from 9am to 5pm for individuals 65 or older who exhibit COVID-19 symptoms as well as for all first responders and healthcare workers even if they do not show symptoms.
Nurses will be on site to screen people for eligibility and people who do not meet testing criteria will be turned away.
The Florida Army National Guard will then conduct nasal swabs and the test results will be available in about 48 to 72 hours.
As of Sunday morning there are 763 cases of coronavirus in Florida and there have been at least 12 deaths.
Three people have passed away in Broward County and all have been linked to the same assisted-living facility in Fort Lauderdale.
Drive-thru testing centers have popped up in 30 states across the country in a frantic effort to test as many people as possible for the novel coronavirus as over 26,800 people test positive
Healthcare workers pictured directing lines of traffic at a coronavirus drive-thru testing center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Friday
Reverend Scott Holmer, left, hosts a drive-thru confessional at the Saint Edward the Confessor Catholic Church in Bowie, Maryland on Saturday
The drive-thru testing system has been plagued with inconsistencies, delays and shortages of tests and medical supplies. Some symptomatic patients have waited hours if not days for a test
A line of New Yorkers pictured in line waiting for a COVID-19 test at walk-in test center at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens on Saturday
A person is taken on a stretcher into the United Memorial Medical Center after going through testing for COVID-19 Thursday in Houston, Texas
Florida’s other testing site at Broward Health in Pompano Beach requires people to register before getting tested.
Another testing facility at Larkin Community Hospital in Hialeah is by appointment only, and the site is prioritizing first responders and healthcare workers.
Governor DeSantis said two other facilities will open this week. One will open at the Orange Coutny Convention Center in Orlando on Wednesday and a third will open at the TIAA Bank field in Jacksonville on Saturday.
‘The goal would be able to cast as broad a net with this as possible,’ the governor said. ‘It really helps inform how we’re best able to prevent more damage from the virus.’
Drive-thru testing centers have popped up in 30 states across the country in a frantic effort to test as many people as possible for the novel coronavirus as the US case toll surpasses 26,800.
However, the system has been plagued with inconsistencies, delays and shortages of tests and medical supplies.
Some symptomatic patients have waited hours if not days for a test.
In greater Philadelphia there are 20 sites testing about 1,000 people a day – but that’s not enough to meet the demand. Some states like Montana have just one lone testing center with long lines of patients waiting to get tested.
More than a week after President Donald Trump promised states that retail stores such as Walmart and CVS will open drive-thru test centers, few are up and running.
New Jersey Army National Guard medical personnel pictured assisting New Jersey citizens at a COVID-19 testing site at Bergen Community College in Paramus, New Jersey on Friday
Testing Members of the Florida’s National Guard help at a coronavirus (COVID-19) testing site they setup at C.B. Smith Park in Pembroke Pines, Miami on Friday
A COVID-19 drive-thru testing facility in Ambler, Pennsylvania on Saturday
Some states are leaving it up to the private sector to open test locations and others are coordinating with state health departments, as per AP.
On top of a lack of testing facilities, some patients have complained that there are bureaucratic hoops to jump through to even get the test. Once allowed to take a test, it can take days to actually receive a nasal swab and even longer to get a result.
The spotty and slow nature of the testing system has made it challenging for public health officials to actually track the spread of the contagious virus and combat it.
During a White House briefing Saturday Dr. Brett Giroir, the federal health official tasked with overseeing testing, said that so far 195,000 people have been tested in the nation. However, that doesn’t include people who have been tested in private labs.
Supply shortages have been reported in dozens of states including Colorado, New Mexico, Virginia, Florida, Louisiana, Alabama, North Carolina and Utah.
One site in Las Vegas closed altogether due to a lack of workers. New York announced Friday their centers faced a shortage of protective equipment including face masks.