HOUSTON – The Houston Health Department and Xpress COVID Testing will open two mega COVID-19 testing sites on Thursday, expanding access to meet high demand.
“We’ve seen the demand before Christmas. People are wanting to get tested,” Porfirio Villarreal, Public Information Officer for Houston Health Department, said.
A mega testing site will open at the former Dave & Buster’s at 6010 Richmond Ave. in partnership with Xpress COVID Testing. It will have a daily capacity of approximately 1,000 tests.
The department and Xpress COVID Testing will open a mega testing site at Kingwood Community Center, located at 4102 Rustic Woods Dr., on January 6. It will have a daily capacity of approximately 800 tests.
Both sites will operate Mondays through Saturdays in January from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Appointments are not required.
“Were hoping to do at least 30,000 test per day. We know that the demand is great we want to meet that demand,” Porfirio Villarreal said.
The health department says these additional sites will provide more access to people who want to get tested, but to help stop spread, health experts say it starts with getting vaccinated and boosted.
“We see much smaller lines and shorter time period to get a COVID shot than to get a test so go get your COVID shot or if you need a booster that’s really important because that ramps up your immune to keep COVID away,” Porfirio Villarreal said.
On Wednesday, the department opened a site at Delmar Stadium that can test around 1,000 people.
Over five days of operation, the health department has tested 3,927 people at Minute Maid Park since December 30 and 5,225 people have been tested at Delmar Stadium since December 29.
As the highly contagious omicron variant continues to spread, health experts say the surge will get worse in the next few weeks.
“Last week we saw the viral load in the wastewater at 546%, compared to the first wave in July of 2020. So, for the next few weeks we will see many cases,” Porfirio Villarreal said.