Gov. DeSantis praises COVID-19 testing in Sarasota. Some residents were turned away

Gov. Ron DeSantis highlighted the importance of COVID-19 testing and Florida’s ability to screen residents during his visit to Sarasota on Tuesday morning.

As he departed from the Mall at University Town Center, a state-supported location for drive-thru testing, the site reached capacity and turned away frustrated residents.

“I’m upset,” said 83-year-old Shahn Gregson, a resident of Sarasota.

Gregson said she had no symptoms or contact with COVID-19, a respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus. Since the illness was dangerous to Florida’s elderly population, and it could spread long before symptoms arose, Gregson hoped to get tested and put her mind at ease.

The site at UTC opened on Sunday and closed early the last two days. While testing was scheduled from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., the 400 available tests were accounted for by 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday, as the governor wrapped up his press conference.

Flanked by state Sen. Joe Gruters, Senate President Bill Galvano and state Reps. Wengay Newton and Tommy Gregory, the governor said he would support more testing at the site.

“This can accommodate 400, but if we need to scale it up, that will happen very quickly,” DeSantis said during the briefing. “I know Jared (Moskowitz) has supplies ready to go.”

Moskowitz, director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, said the testing site in Sarasota would expand its testing capabilities.

“When we open these sites, we open them up at a 400-person capacity to work out the kinks, make sure everything works,” he said. “After today this site will go to 750 a day.”

“We’re not seeing, even in South Florida, any site doing 750,” he continued. “They’re doing around 500 to 600 a day. It goes up and down, but I wanted to make sure that if people come and get in line and want a test, that they can get a test.”

The free testing site is operated by Florida’s National Guard in a parking lot east of Dillard’s, 140 University Town Center Drive. Testing is available to anyone over the age of 18, regardless of whether he or she has symptoms.

Each visitor is screened, tested and sent home with instructions, according to an informational sheet provided at the testing site.

“A soft swab will be inserted deep into your nose to get the necessary sample,” it states. “This may be slightly uncomfortable; however, the test is quick and should take less than a minute.”

During his visit to Sarasota, the governor said he was confident about recent test results and the ability to slowly reopen Florida. Phase One of his plan, including the reopening of restaurants and retail stores at 25 percent capacity, began on Monday.

“Yesterday, the state of Florida reported the most number of test results since we started this,” DeSantis said on Tuesday. “We got 23,884 test results. Out of that massive batch, it only yielded 589 new Florida cases.”

Manatee County had 684 positive cases of COVID-19 and 61 related deaths as of Tuesday morning.

Testing will continue in Sarasota on Wednesday, starting at 9 a.m., and no prescription, appointment or insurance is required. The local site is expected to remain open through at least May 17.

“This has been a real key component to us fighting the pandemic here in the state of Florida,” the governor said of COVID-19 testing.

This story was originally published May 5, 2020 at 4:19 PM.