Beginning Monday, October 5, the City of San Antonio’s no cost testing sites will have a soft launch to expand testing to asymptomatic individuals. The test sites are located at Freeman Coliseum, Cuellar Community Center and Ramirez Community Center. All locations will be able to provide testing daily starting October 12.
Monday October 5th from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m.
Cuellar Community Center
5626 San Fernando St.
San Antonio, TX 78237
Tuesday, October 6th from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m.
Ramirez Community Center
1011 Gillette Blvd.
San Antonio, TX 78219
Wednesday, October 7th from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m.
Must schedule an appointment at 830-391-8559
Freeman Coliseum
3201 E. Houston St.
San Antonio, TX 78219
The testing expansion is a partnership between Metro Health, Community Labs and BioBridge Global.
“Throughout this response, our goal has been to make testing more accessible by leveraging partnerships with our community and relying on CDC guidance for testing. Over the past few weeks, we’ve been looking at ways to bring FDA-approved, asymptomatic testing to our City’s test sites and I’m so pleased to partner with Community Labs to make this a reality,” said Assistant City Manager and Interim Metro Health Director Dr. Colleen Bridger.
Previously residents were required to show symptoms of the disease, which included a fever, dry cough, chills, amongst other symptoms of COVID-19. Starting Monday, individuals with or without symptoms will be able to use the City’s no cost test sites to access nasal PCR tests at no cost to determine if they have contracted COVID-19. Nasal PCR tests have been approved by the FDA for testing of asymptomatic individuals.
“Community Labs was created to make sure every San Antonio resident has access to COVID-19 testing weather they are asymptomatic or not. We are pleased with this new partnership with the City of San Antonio and look forwarded to supporting them in this mission with us.” said Graham Weston, Chairman of the Board of Community Labs.
As a reminder to the public, after being tested for COVID-19, it is important to:
- Assume you are positive until you get your test results back.
- Stay at home in a room away from other people and use a separate bathroom if you can. Isolate yourself from others, including not going to work until results are received. If you are facing hardships to finding a safe place to isolate from vulnerable people in your household, contact 311.
- Identify close contacts. A close contact is anyone you spent 15 minutes or more with and were within six-feet distance. If you test positive, call people or places that you had close contact with. Let them know that they were exposed and that they should quarantine for 10 days. To identify a close contact, work backwards until two days before you showed symptoms.
- Monitor symptoms at least twice a day. If you have a prolonged fever, difficulty breathing or chest pains, call your medical provider or 911 if there is an emergency.
- Wash your mask daily and be sure to only touch the ties/ear loops as the inside and outside may be contaminated.
In addition, the City of San Antonio has an online self-screening tool that can be found at www.sanantonio.gov/covid19. This tool does not replace medical care if a person is feeling ill. A healthcare provider should be visited if symptoms worsen or if underlying medical conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, lung disease, or heart disease is a factor in the person’s medical history.
For more information please visit the COVID-19 portal or https://www.communitylabs.org/
FOUR WAYS TO SIGN UP FOR COVID-19 ALERTS
- Download the Ready South Texas app, available in the iTunes and Google Play stores
- Text COSAGOV to 55000 to receive SMS text message updates
- Follow @COSAGOV on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
- Bookmark covid19.sanantonio.gov
Public service announcements on physical distancing, prevention and testing are available here.