Community partners provide successful first day of free COVID19 testing for Muskegon

 Community partners provide successful first day of free COVID-19 testing for Muskegon Heights residents

 
MUSKEGON HEIGHTS, Mich.- Residents of Muskegon Heights and Muskegon County have the opportunity to be tested for COVID-19 under an agreement with the local and state officials. Free testing took place Saturday May 23 and will continue Sunday May 24 at the Farmers Market in Muskegon Heights.

 

"We thought it was very important that community partners come together to make this happen because we want to be able to mitigate the spread of COVID-19,” said Kathy Moore, health officer and public health director, Muskegon County, Michigan.

 

"Identifying individuals who are positive will also help us identify the employers and the close contacts and continue to advise them to quarantine or isolate if positive, even if the stay home order is relaxed," she added.

 

The two-day drive-through testing relied on various organizations, including the Michigan National Guard.

 

"This is absolutely a blessing that the Michigan National Guard is available to conduct these tests,” said Moore.  "They came with trained teams to actually collect the specimens and without the National Guard we would be relying on a limited healthcare capacity."

 

Testing will continue through Sunday May 24 and with just over 2,000 test kits available, the possibility of using every single kit appears to be a reachable goal.

 

"We are hoping to test 1,500-2,000 people during the two days," said Moore.  "We are not even half way through the first day and have tested over 300 people."