Florida National Guard COVID-19 testing site closes early. Daily capacity will be 400 tests 

A drive-thru COVID-19 testing site run by the Florida National Guard near The Mall at University Town Center in Sarasota has closed early on its second day in operation after reaching capacity at 400 tests, according to Sarasota County Emergency Services.

The site was slated to remain open until 5 p.m., but was closed as of 2 p.m.

In a briefing on the first phase of “reopening” Florida last week, Gov. Ron DeSantis said that new drive-thru testing sites opening around the state, including the one near the Manatee-Sarasota county line, would have enough capacity to “probably do at least 750 tests a day.”

However, the local site will perform only 400 tests per day, according to Sarasota County. Testing will resume at 9 a.m. Tuesday.

Testing at the site is available to anyone over the age of 18 and no prescription or appointment is required. It was established to provide more testing for the Manatee County and Sarasota County area, which, despite comparatively high numbers of COVID-19 cases and deaths, has lagged behind other Tampa Bay area counties in testing.

Testing details:

▪ Testing is free and available for anyone over the age of 18.

▪ No prescriptions, appointments or symptoms are required.

▪ Participants should bring a photo ID (placed on dashboard), a health insurance card (not required) and a healthcare facility

employee or first responder ID/Badge (if applicable).

▪ Participants do not have to be residents of Sarasota or Manatee counties.

▪ Vehicles should contain no more than five people, and occupants should be limited to those who are being tested. Each person being tested should be seated by a working car window.

▪ Participants must remain in their vehicles at all times.

▪ There may be significant wait times, and there are no bathrooms on site.

Samples are to be collected via nasal swab and sent to a commercial lab for testing, according to state officials, and results will be provided as soon as possible.

A release from the Joint Information Center on COVID-19 for the State of Florida did not say how long the testing site would operate.

Details: Open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. every day. Located in the parking lot east of Dillard’s at The Mall at University Town Center, 140 University Town Center Dr., Sarasota.