New COVID-19 testing program for Northwest Georgia announced
The Georgia Department of Public Health Northwest Health District’s new COVID- 19 testing program became effective Sept. 1. Testing remains free. The new program features additional testing times and more easily found test sites throughout Northwest Georgia.
“Our goal is to increase testing in Northwest Georgia by making it more convenient for the public while better balancing demand for testing with our resources,” said Dr. Gary Voccio, health director for the ten-county Northwest Health District.
Voccio advises that anyone who wants to get tested can get tested but recommends testing especially for anyone experiencing COVID-19 symptoms and for close contacts of positive COVID-19 cases on their 10th day of quarantine.
Under the new program, public health provides COVID-19 testing six days a week across the Northwest Health District. One test site is open daily, Monday through Saturday, in each of four multi-county regions:
♦ Catoosa, Dade and Walker region
♦ Floyd and Chattooga region
♦ Bartow and Gordon region
♦ Haralson, Paulding and Polk region
Most test sites will be open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. One test site in each region will be open on Saturdays.
“You do not have to reside in a county to get tested at the site in that county,” Voccio stresses. “Anyone may get tested at any of these test sites.”
All test sites feature convenient drive-up processing. No appointments are needed. Test sites in Catoosa, Dade and Walker counties feature supervised self-collection.
Effective Sept. 1, COVID- 19 testing is no longer offered at the Catoosa, Chattooga, Gordon, Haralson, Paulding, Polk or Walker county health departments.
Test sites at the West Rome Baptist Church in Rome and the Clarence Brown Conference Center in Cartersville closed effective Sept. 1.
For information about COVID-19 testing in a specific county, including locations, days and hours, visit the Facebook page for that county’s health department.
For information about all Northwest Health District COVID-19 test sites, go to https://nwgapublichealth.org.