Allegheny County to close covid testing sites

The Curative covid-19 testing sites located throughout Allegheny County will close by the end of the year, officials said Monday.

County officials cited lower numbers of daily infections, deaths and hospitalizations from the virus as they announced changes to testing options.

“For the past two and a half years, Curative Inc. provided Allegheny County residents with a much-needed flexible and expansive covid-19 testing service,” Allegheny County Health Department Director Dr. Debra Bogen said. “With the increasing availability and use of at-home tests and the reduction of covid-19 cases in the county, the need for this expansive testing option is not the necessity it once was.”

Curative is a California-based company that partnered with the county to provide testing during the pandemic.

During the county’s peak testing week in the midst of the Omicron variant surge of 2021-2022, nearly 30,000 tests were administered at Curative sites throughout the region, county officials said. The need for such testing has “decreased substantially” in the year since that surge, officials said.

The 11 sites combined have averaged less than 500 tests per week recently, officials said.

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The busiest site throughout much of the pandemic was at the Carnegie Museums of Art and Natural History in Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood. The site administered 233 tests last month.

The least visited site averaged less than one test per day over the course of the last month. Offciials did not say where that site was located.

Curative will close its sites in Allegheny County in two phases.

The first phase will see four sites close on December 2: Homestead Waterfront kiosk, Mr. Smalls testing kiosk, Smithfield Street kiosk and the Parkway Center Mall.

The other three sites will close on December 30: Bridgeville, Carnegie Museums of Art and Natural History and McKeesport.

The final day for the four fleet vans, which serve various sites each week, will be Dec. 30.

“As we approach the winding down of testing sites, the health department prioritized keeping open the sites that served our most vulnerable residents,” Bogen said. “These sites have faithfully served residents who most need the services since the earliest days of the pandemic. For many, they provide a valuable testing safety net.”

The elimination of Curative’s covid-19 testing services in the county coincides with their plans to end testing throughout the country, Allegheny County officials said.

At-home, rapid antigen tests now are covered by many insurance providers. Testing also is available at many clinics, urgent care centers, emergency departments and pharmacies.

The health department has worked with community partners to ensure residents have free at-home testing options available to them, officials said. The county will continue to do so after the Curative testing sites close.

To date, the county’s health department has distributed about 61,200 at-home covid-19 test kids to partner organizations, who provide them to the people they serve.

“Throughout the pandemic, we have worked diligently to keep our community healthy and safe from a virus that has hospitalized more than 16,000 of our residents and killed 3,500 more,” Bogen said. “As the covid-19 pandemic evolves, the health department will continue to adapt to changing needs and to make sure testing options are available to residents, regardless of their ability to pay.”