ST. LOUIS – Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Prepare STL and Affinia Healthcare have partnered to perform free COVID- 19 tests and hand out thousands of PPE. Saturday was no different as the group made a stop in the parking lot of a Schnucks in north St. Louis.

Health officials say they have a responsibility to ensure the safety of residents.

Affina Healthcare, Prepare STL, and Schnucks provides free coronavirus mobile testing and thousands of PPE’s. 

Saturday was another one of the free of charge community testing events that have been replicated in various communities across St. Louis.

Hundreds of residents received the services.

Organizers say they wanted to help increase the availability of COVID-19 testing especially for those who need it most.

“Large areas of north St. Louis city are disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 so it’s very important to get the word out. This community has a large amount of health disparities, so they are at risk for increased complications due to COVID-19,” Affinia Healthcare’s Dr. Kendra Holmes said.

30 percent of those testing positive are African-American according to the latest data from the Center for Disease Control and roughly one-third of the United States’ COVID-19 fatalities are African-American.