Yakima Health Officials Say COVID Testing Is Almost Over

Remember when you couldn't drive around Yakima without spotting a COVID-19 testing site? Now more than 2 years later testing sites are a rarity. And officials at the Yakima Health District say the community COVID-19 test site operated byYakima Valley Memorial, Signal Health, and the University of Washington at 1211 N 16th Avenue will close on January 28.

Thousands were tested but test demands are down big time

During the COVID-19 emergency thousands of people were being tested every week in the valley. Today health officials say the demand for COVID testing has dropped to fewer than 100 tests a week and continues to trend down. The community COVID-19 test sites operated out of three locations since October of 2020, State Fair Park, Yakima Valley College, and at 1211 N 16th Avenue.

Health officials found a lot of positive cases

Funding came from the Yakima Health District, The Washington State Department of Health, and since August of 2021, the University of Washington and Yakima Valley Memorial. Yakima Health District officials say the bilingual test team administered over 136,000 COVID-19 tests with positivity rates as high as 50% on some days.

One day in 2021 was a busy one for health officials

A press release from the district says "on January 21, 2022 they tested over 800 patients, which was their busiest day. Patient surveys showed a 4.83 out of 5-star rating for their customer service during this time.“COVID-19 testing was an important strategy during the pandemic.We learned that low-barrier/no cost testing works.Community testing as a public health strategy kept people from flooding clinics and the hospital for tests that are easily administered, with results available directly to the patient as quickly as the next day."