HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — A fourth testing location operated by Hillsborough County opened Monday as officials continue to battle COVID-19.
Starting Monday, the parking lot of Adventure Island, 10001 N. McKinley Dr., Tampa, FL 33612, is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily for people who want to receive free COVID-19 testing. It is a drive-thru site and no appointments are needed.
“So far, it’s been a slow start this morning, but that’s not a bad thing necessarily. But we have had people come through, so we’re glad that people are being able to utilize the facility,” said Katja Miller on Monday, the Human Services and Mass Care Coordinator for Hillsborough County Emergency Management.
County officials explained they opened the site to provide more service and readily available testing for people who live in Hillsborough County, especially those in the northern part of the county and those who might not be able to travel as far to their other sites.
In recent weeks, the demand for COVID-19 tests has skyrocketed across the Tampa Bay area, with long lines and even longer waits. Miller shared they’ve seen testing numbers go down a bit.
“We’re not seeing as long of wait times. We were still seeing maybe 40 to 60 minutes. I know a couple weeks ago at HCC, we had up to 3 hour waits those first couple days, but all of that has really died down a bit. And we did not have as high of a demand here this morning, but again, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s just giving people more options if they have the need or want to come and get tested,” said Miller.
Hillsborough County has three other COVID testing sites, located at the HCC Brandon Campus, Progress Village Park, and the West Tampa Community Resource Center.
ABC Action News looked at the number of tests administered at each county testing site for the last two weeks:
Progress Village
- Monday Jan. 10-Sunday Jan. 16: 12,623 tests
- Monday Jan. 17-Sunday Jan. 23: 10,106 tests
West Tampa
- Monday Jan. 10-Sunday Jan. 16: 9,026 tests
- Monday Jan. 17-Sunday Jan. 23: 5,519 tests
HCC Brandon
- Monday Jan. 10-Sunday Jan. 16: 10,508 tests
- Monday Jan. 17-Sunday Jan. 23: 9,911 tests
“It varies a bit each day at the sites, but the numbers that we’re seeing are anywhere from in the 600s to 1,600 of how many people are coming just to one site alone,” said Miller. “The demand is still there. There’s still the need. It’s just maybe not as much.”
To receive a COVID-19 test at Adventure Island, people will access the park's parking lot off East Bougainvillea Avenue. There will be signs directing people where to go.
This is the fourth county site where people can receive COVID-19 testing. The county reminds that all four sites offer free COVID-19 tests, including the Antigen Rapid test, which provides a result in about three hours, and the PCR test, which provides a result in about 48 hours. No appointments are needed for COVID-19 testing at any of the four sites.