Anyone can now get a COVID-19 test at Hard Rock Stadium as standards loosen countywide
For the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic hit South Florida, anyone regardless of age, underlying health conditions or known exposure to the disease is now eligible to get tested without an appointment.
State officials announced Tuesday that the drive-thru testing site at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, which was previously open to anyone 18 and older with symptoms or close contact with someone who tested positive, is now open and free to anyone who shows up in a car.
“Right now we are able to test anyone that desires a test, regardless of whether they have symptoms or not, regardless of age,” Mike Jachles, a spokesman for the Hard Rock site, told the Miami Herald. “This is a significant advantage to our residents.”
The change reflects loosening requirements for COVID-19 testing across South Florida in recent days. City of Miami officials expanded their testing site at Hadley Park in Liberty City this week to anyone 18 and older, with or without symptoms. When the site first opened March 28, testing was only available for city residents 65 and older who were experiencing symptoms.
But testing expanded at the Hadley Park site as demand for appointments declined. The city continued to loosen requirements for age and symptoms, until on Tuesday, the city opened testing to any Miamian over the age of 18.
Another testing site at Marlins Park is now open to anyone 18 and older with symptoms, or who simply suspects they have been exposed. When the site first opened in late March, tests were only for people 65 and older with novel coronavirus symptoms.
Most drive-thru sites in the region are still prioritizing people with symptoms, but that may be shifting. In addition to the Hard Rock site, Memorial Healthcare System announced last week that it would take appointments at C.B. Smith Park in Pembroke Pines for all South Florida residents 18 and older.
The Hard Rock Stadium site, which is being run by the Florida Division of Emergency Management, opens at 9 a.m. each morning and can process up to 750 tests per day. That’s far more than the 250 per day capacity when the site opened last month, a limit imposed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The site was initially a hybrid model with 250 tests per day provided by the federal government and another 200 provided by the state, for a total of about 450 daily tests, according to Jachles. That approach created “complexities,” he said, with staff needing to change out the testing kits and personal protective equipment from the federal to the state versions each day.
In mid-April, the 450 tests ran out within two hours on the first two days after age restrictions were lifted, according to WPLG — even though symptoms were still required to get tested.
Now, the site is being operated with state tests alone, allowing capacity to ramp up to 750 tests per day, Jachles said, adding that he expects that number to hold up for the foreseeable future.
“Initially, [testing kits and PPE] were in short supply and we had to test those who needed the tests most,” Jachles said. Now, he said, “there’s a more consistent supply of test kits available.”
Over 17,000 nasal swab tests to diagnose COVID-19 have been conducted at the Hard Rock site to date.
Among five of the biggest drive-thru testing sites in Miami-Dade County — Hard Rock, Marlins Park, South Dade Government Center in Cutler Bay, the Youth Fair at Tamiami Park and Amelia Earhart Park in Hialeah — over 37,000 tests had been completed as of Monday, according to county data.
The data shows that, between those five sites, testing reached a peak between April 14 and 18 with nearly 1,800 tests per day. Those numbers dipped last week with no more than 1,600 tests conducted in a single day.
It wasn’t clear Tuesday how many total testing kits remain at the various sites in Miami-Dade, nor how many are en route. A spokesperson for the county’s Emergency Operations Center could not immediately provide that data.
Gov. Ron DeSantis boasted to President Donald Trump during a visit to the White House on Tuesday that Florida’s “ability to test exceeds the current demand.’’ But under the current testing guidelines, that would be hard to know for sure. The Florida Department of Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advance guidelines that don’t encourage anyone who wants a test to get one.
For months, the guidance was to ration tests and give priority to the most severely ill or hospitalized patients and healthcare workers with symptoms. This week, the CDC expanded its criteria to now include first responders and people living and working in nursing facilities, prisons and shelters and anyone identified through public health investigations.
But that guidance doesn’t expand to providing universal testing for those groups, continuing to suggest that testing remain a top priority only if they have symptoms or have been identified for possible exposure.
Florida’s capacity to test the public for the virus has grown exponentially in the last two weeks, but hospitals still say they are constrained by supply shortages. And nursing homes and elder-care facilities continue to say they don’t have the access to COVID-19 tests needed to diagnose staff and residents.
As state and local government officials begin to reopen public spaces this week and prepare to reopen non-essential businesses, public health experts say much more testing is still needed. Florida needs to test 150 people for every 100,000 residents every day, said Dr. Charles Lockwood, the dean of University of South Florida’s College of Medicine, at a news conference with DeSantis on Monday. That’s about 33,000 people every day, more than double the current rate.
As of Tuesday afternoon, 1.7% of Floridians had been tested, according to the Florida Department of Health.
Miami Herald staff writers Mary Ellen Klas, Ben Conarck and Daniel Chang contributed to this report.
This story was originally published April 28, 2020 at 5:51 PM.
