Photo caption: UW-Eau Claire controller Jackie Kriesel was among the two dozen university employees and students who volunteered at the community COVID-19 testing site at Eau Claire Memorial High School.
High demand has prompted the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire to expand its COVID-19 testing capacity on weekends at the free drive-up community site at Memorial High School.
A total of 901 rapid tests were administered at the site Nov. 14, 15 and 18. Additional community members showed up at the high school but were unable to be tested, according to Grace Crickette, UW-Eau Claire vice chancellor for finance and administration, who has coordinated the community testing site.
“The past weekend and Wednesday clinic helped us to set up our operations and develop the process to handle more testing,” Crickette says. “We want to help as many community members as possible.”
To better accommodate the community, starting Nov. 21 the testing capacity will increase to 400 people on Saturdays and Sundays. The community testing is from noon to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday until Dec. 9. Testing will not be conducted on Nov. 25.
People are asked to preregister for the test here.
The community testing is a collaboration between the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the University of Wisconsin System because of a surge of COVID-19 cases in Wisconsin.
The testing is intended to identify asymptomatic individuals who are positive for COVID-19 and are at risk of spreading the virus unknowingly.
