MARION COUNTY, Fla. (WCJB) – For every person who skips an appointment to be tested for COVID-19 is another person who didn’t get tested because they couldn’t make an appointment. That’s going to change in one county.

The Marion County Health Department is continuing to provide COVID-19 testing to residents. Soon they’ll be able to be tested without an appointment.

The Health Department has been providing COVID-19 testing for several months now. R
oughly 300 appointments are scheduled per day but not everyone shows up Health Department officials said.

“Well there’s been so many appointments that are requested that individuals are now four, five or six days out at times to schedule and appointment than what happens is they find and alternate site, because we direct them to other areas that they might be able to get in quicker and they find an appointment and end up canceling or not showing up here,” Marion County Health Department Administrator Mark Lander said.

To curb this issue and accommodate more people, they will be doing away with appointments.

“It’ll be a situation where you drive through, we’ll collect all of your information right there, conduct the testing and we’ll cut it off either at a certain time or once a certain amount of tests have been complete,” Lander said.

COVID-19 numbers are rising in Marion County, and while the decision to change the testing process wasn’t directly a result of more cases, officials are still asking the public to do their part.

“We are still heavily promoting the social distancing aspect, the face mask aspect, when you’re out in public and can’t social distance you need to be in a face mask. We’re seeing so many new cases come in from individuals who have been at events, large scale events not following mitigation practices,” Lander added.

Officials said this change will take place on August 4th and will be offered on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, with testing likely taking place at the Livestock Pavilion.

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