COVID-19 UPDATE: With increased access to at-home testing kits, West Virginia to scale back free community testing events

Press Release

Gov. Jim Justice and members of the West Virginia COVID-19 pandemic response leadership team held another news briefing today to update the public on the state's latest pandemic response and vaccine distribution efforts.
UPDATE REGARDING FREE TESTING EVENTS
Gov. Justice announced during his briefing on Thursday that, thanks to the access to and the convenience of at-home COVID-19 test kits, there is now less of a need for public community testing efforts.

As a result, the state will be scaling back its community testing events.

West Virginia has provided free community testing for all citizens since the beginning of the pandemic.

Testing sites will continue to be offered at pharmacies, participating local health departments, participating medical centers, and Federally Qualified Healthcare Centers to all who are symptomatic or have been exposed to COVID-19.

"There are still plenty of places out there where you can find access to free testing. But, to be perfectly honest, what's happening right now with our community testing events is that they're set up all day, but maybe only two people come by," Gov. Justice said. "We're just spending money that could be better spent somewhere else right now. That said, if things happen to get worse, we'll be right back out there."

The federal government is also offering additional home testing kits.

"We just want to make sure that everyone knows we do have testing available still, we're just rolling back these specific events," said State Health Officer Dr. Ayne Amjad. "We still have free testing available through different options."

Dr. Amjad added that West Virginia's online testing locations map is being updated to account for these changes.

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