UPDATE: Progress Village Park COVID-19 testing site hit capacity for the day just before 3 p.m people still in line will still be tested.
The testing site at the West Tampa Community Resource Center will remain open as scheduled until 5 p.m.
The County’s temporary testing sites at Lee Davis Community Resource Center and Plant City Community Resource Center will be opening tomorrow, Dec. 31 at 9 a.m. They’ll be open from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. Saturday, Sunday and Monday only.
HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) – Hundreds of people showed up at Progress Village Park, not for the latest iPhone or a blow-out sale.
They wanted a COVID-19 test, amid record-breaking case numbers and the spread of the omicron variant.
“Just a precautionary test,” said Matthew Amoroso, of Tampa.
He arrived at Progress Village Park at 7:45 a.m. Thursday. Testing started at 9 a.m.
“I manage car sales and come in contact with a lot of different people on a daily basis so just, with everything that’s going around, I just wanted to make sure. I don’t want to bring anything home to my family,” he said.
Hundreds of people showed up to get in line for their tests before the site opened.
So much so, staff had to turn people away at the start of the day.
“No parking guys. We’re here until 5 o’clock,” an employee said to a driver.
County emergency management officials say a few hundred people a day were getting tested before Christmas.
In the past week, that number has soared to nearly 3,000 per day.
It’s why Hillsborough County and the city of Tampa are offering new COVID-19 testing sites.
“We primarily put up a lot of these sites to help those with symptoms and exposures but it is the holiday season and we do have a lot of high risks events going on, whether that be hanging out with family or social events in the city,” said Kesley Richardson, health care coordinator for Hillsborough County Emergency Management.
The Progress Village Park testing site will be open seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. It is closed on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.
Click here for a full list of COVID-19 testing sites in the Bay area.
