The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) will close the remaining 20 COVID-19 community testing sites on January 15, 2023.
Coloradans have continued to rely more on at-home tests and demand for testing at community sites has dropped consistently over the last several months, fluctuating between 3-6% of overall capacity since November 2022. This transition further operationalizes the testing plans outlined in the State’s Colorado’s Next Chapter: Our Roadmap to Moving Forward. Released in February of 2022, the Roadmap outlined how testing would move into traditional health care settings.
“Colorado is proud to have opened one of the first drive-thru testing sites in the country in March 2020. Since then, we have provided millions of tests to Coloradans at more than 150 community testing sites across Colorado. Coloradans have transitioned away from relying on large community testing sites and toward testing at home with widely available at-home rapid tests, health care providers, or local retail pharmacies.” said Scott Bookman, COVID-19 Incident Commander. “With this transition, the State is focusing efforts on the testing distribution methods Coloradans currently use most and providing testing resources to those who need them most.”
The State provides free at-home tests at more than 200 distribution centers. Additionally, Coloradans can order free tests to be delivered to their homes through the federal at-home testing program. Insurance companies and health plans are also required to cover eight free over-the-counter at-home tests per covered person per month.
Pharmacies participating in the Increasing Community Access to Testing (ICATT) program offer low- or no-cost testing for people without insurance. Pharmacies may offer rapid tests, lab-based PCR tests, or both. Contact a specific location for more information. These locations take insurance, and tests are offered at no cost to people who are symptomatic or exposed and do not have insurance. Most pharmacies only offer testing for patients aged 3 years and older. Parents and guardians of very young children should talk to their child’s health care provider about testing.
CDPHE continues to closely monitor testing needs, disease transmission, and hospital capacity to be able to respond appropriately and programs supporting testing in higher risk settings will continue. CDPHE continually supports long term and residential care facilities with both PCR and rapid testing as needed. CDPHE also has rapid response teams that can support long term and residential care facilities with testing and vaccines in response to outbreaks and will continue to support outbreak testing at corrections facilities. CDPHE’s free school testing programs will also continue through at least the end of the 2022-2023 school year.
CDPHE is working closely with local public health agencies to support them if they determine they need to establish ongoing community testing sites in their area. This includes helping them use federal funds they already have as well as connecting them directly with federal resources and programs that are available to them. Several federal programs, including CDC’s Color Health and ICATT Pharmacy program, are available to local public health agencies, counties, and community organizations to provide additional PCR and rapid testing resources. These programs focus on providing COVID-19 testing opportunities for people who are underinsured or uninsured or who may be at higher risk of severe outcomes from COVID-19.
Coloradans who feel symptoms of COVID-19 should test and contact their health care provider if they test positive to see if COVID-19 medicine is right for them. Each community testing site’s final date of operation may vary according to its established schedule.
Continue to stay up to date by visiting covid19.colorado.gov.
