The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) has announced that it will be opening a drive-up coronavirus screening site on Monday, March 23.
The new location will be in downtown Birmingham and, because of limited supplies, will conduct 250 screenings per day.
Citizens who are experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 — fever, cough, shortness of breath — must call and make an appointment before they will be screened for the virus.
The call center that makes the appointments will open Sunday at 12:00 p.m. The number to call is 205-975-1881.
Only patients experiencing symptoms will be given approval for screening.
The call center will make all appointments for the new screening site.
The call center’s hours starting Monday will be 7:00 a.m. until 11:00 p.m. The screening locations hours will be from 9:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
The location is at University Boulevard and 22nd Street S in a facility formerly used by the Southern Research Institute.
Samples collected at the screening site will be tested in UAB’s laboratories, which began conducting tests on Friday.
Jordan Demoss, Vice President of Clinical Operations at UAB medicine told the press that the reason for the limited amount of tests was a lack of supplies, which has been a nationwide problem.
Henry Thornton is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can contact him by email: henry@new-yhn.local or on Twitter @HenryThornton95.
