Coral Gables residents clamored for COVID-19 testing. A site will open Friday.
At a virtual commission meeting last Wednesday, Coral Gables City Manager Peter Iglesias said his administration had looked at “every single way” to bring COVID-19 testing to the city, with no success.
But after the commission responded to residents’ cries for testing by directing Iglesias to create a plan for a drive-thru site, the turnaround was swift. On Monday, six days after the meeting, the commission approved the manager’s plan for a free drive-thru testing site for Coral Gables residents. It will open on Friday.
The city is partnering with BioCollections Worldwide, the same company operating a testing site in Key Biscayne, to administer and process the nasal swab tests at a city-owned parking lot off LeJeune Road near the Shops at Merrick Park. The commission voted Monday to authorize up to $100,000 in city spending for the site, including tests that will cost $75 apiece with results available in 48 hours.
“You can’t put a price on public safety,” Vice Mayor Vince Lago told the Miami Herald. “Our residents come first, their safety and their peace of mind.”
Lago is one of a few city commissioners who were advocating for drive-thru testing in the city. It was especially important to some of the city’s older residents to have a testing option nearby, Lago said, rather than needing to drive to another site like Marlins Park about five miles away.
“Residents continue to reach out to us in concern,” Lago said. “Many of the residents, a lot of them are elderly or have pre-existing conditions. They were concerned about having to travel to a Miami-Dade County location.”
The city will add staff to its COVID-19 call center to handle appointments and will have several first responders on-site to help BioCollections Worldwide run the drive-thru smoothly.
Only Coral Gables residents will have access to the tests. Those 65 and older with symptoms or underlying health conditions will take priority, followed by people under 65 with symptoms or underlying health conditions. All other residents will be eligible if tests are still available.
The site will start with up to 100 tests per day, and the city’s website to make appointments will go live soon, Mayor Raúl Valdes-Fauli said.
Coral Gables and Key Biscayne are two of the few cities in Miami-Dade County to open drive-thru testing sites without direct support from the county and state.
Iglesias said Monday that he is also working to bring testing for COVID-19 antibodies to Coral Gables. Those tests aren’t recommended for diagnosing the disease, but they are valuable in assessing how much of a given population has already had it and who may be immune.
This story was originally published April 27, 2020 at 1:13 PM.
