UAB to Start COVID-19 Testing With Mobile Units in Bush Hills, Center Point

Hank Black, BirminghamWatch | April 28, 2020

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By Hank Black

UAB will provide testing for COVID-19 in two community locations this week, offering the tests for people who cannot or don’t want to go to its downtown testing site, officials said today.

A mobile testing unit will go to Central Park Christian School in Bush Hills on Thursday from 1 to 3 p.m. and to Cathedral of the Cross in Center Point on Friday from 1 to 3 p.m. They will see people who have made appointments by calling 205-975-CV19 (2819). Participants must drive up to the mobile facility this week, but walk-up appointments are expected to start as early as next week.

UAB has tested more than 5,000 people at its downtown site off of University Boulevard and 22nd Street South, according to Jordan DeMoss, vice president for clinical operations.

“We’ve spent the last month making sure we could provide access to the community and build our capacity at our downtown site,” DeMoss said. “Now, in partnership with the county’s Unified Incident Command Center, we’re able to start providing mobile testing in our community.”

The command center was instituted earlier this month by the Jefferson County Emergency Management Agency and the Jefferson County Health Department to create a coordinated response for the pandemic.

DeMoss said UAB has developed efficiency at drive-through testing through its existing site, and will be working out details of mobile testing in the coming weeks.

“We’re leveraging partnerships we have through the command center and also those here at UAB through the Minority Health and Research Center, so we have a lot of help to get to the right places,” he said. “We don’t know what the demand will be for this, but expect to learn a lot as we get started, and we’ll be willing to go back into a community where we see more demand,” he said.