Hilton Head area hospitals to end free drive-thru COVID-19 testing events. Here’s why
Hilton Head Regional Healthcare will end its free drive-thru COVID-19 testing events late next week.
The health care system had provided the tests on Mondays and Thursdays from 8 a.m. to noon at Hilton Head and Coastal Carolina hospitals.
The final testing events will be Monday, April 26 and Thursday, April 29, according to spokesperson Daisy Burroughs.
You don’t need an appointment or doctor’s order to get tested.
Jeremy Clark, CEO of the health care system, on Wednesday told the Hilton Head Island-Bluffton Chamber of Commerce that a new S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control site is offering free tests every day.
That DHEC location is open daily from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the parking lot behind Tanger 2 just off Bluffton Parkway.
There’s also been a recent decline in the demand for tests, Clark said.
DHEC data show that the average number of viral COVID-19 tests conducted daily in Beaufort County has dropped roughly 32% since early January.
“We felt like it was best in our interest, and the community’s interest, to refocus our efforts in other areas,” Clark said.
This story was originally published April 22, 2021 at 12:52 PM.
