New Castle, DE – Today, New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer announced the conclusion of New Castle County-hosted COVID-19 testing sites. The last testing event will be on Sunday, May 24 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. County Executive Meyer actively encourages residents to continue to get tested for COVID-19 at your local pharmacy, hospital or private medical clinics. County Executive Meyer also released this VIDEO STATEMENT.
New Castle County began offering free COVID-19 testing for County residents June 1, 2020 at Merchant Square Shopping Center and tested nearly 500 individuals that day when there was no free testing readily available. New Castle County gradually ramped up testing sites around the county to two sites a day five days a week. New Castle County estimates they, along with their partners, Curative, conducted nearly 390,000 tests at over 500 testing locations.
“This was an incredible team effort from day one,” said County Executive Meyer. “We could not have tested as many people as we did without the incredible help of New Castle County employees such as police, paramedics, and emergency response departments, public works, the subcontractors who conduct tests in blistering heat and freezing cold temperatures.”
“We are also thankful the many site partners who allowed us the use of their buildings, parking lots and staff to help us test thousands of Delawareans, including Wilmington University, University of Delaware, EastSide Charter School, Riverfront Development Corporation, Middletown High School, Conrad High School, Westside Health, Marlbrook Elementary, and many more.”
“I would also like to extend a special thank you to members of New Castle County council who understood there was a desperate need in our County for community based testing for our residents, and without hesitation, approved the CARES Act funding to launch this effort.”
As testing has become widely available, and as more Delawareans get vaccinated, New Castle County has seen a drastic reduction in the demand for our test sites, from a peak of over 16,000 during the week of January 4th to just over 3,000 during the first week of May.
County Executive Meyer is confident that if the public needs to get a COVID-19 test, there are ample opportunities throughout New Castle County.
“With the state’s continued COVID-19 test program as well as dozens of private and community based locations, I’m confident county residents will be able to get a COVID-19 test when they need one.”
New Castle County has also updated their COVID-19 resource website to provide a thorough listing of testing providers in the County, and will continue to do so through the summer months.