Hilton Head will no longer offer free COVID testing after Monday. Here’s your last chance
Monday will be the last day the town of Hilton Head Island offers free COVID-19 testing.
Provider BrightStar Care will offer drive-thru testing at Chaplin Community Park for the last time from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday, according to a town news release.
Hilton Head’s announcement comes after S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control ended its testing operations earlier this week.
“The number of people seeking to be tested has declined significantly over the last several weeks, so providers have opted to discontinue testing operations at this time,” Tom Dunn, Hilton Head’s emergency manager said in a statement.
“We will continue to monitor COVID-19 cases and evaluate whether to set up testing sites in the future.”
Those interested in being tested should enter Chaplin Community Park from Singleton Beach Road and follow signs to the test site.
People may pre-register for the test at https://brightstarlc.e-ppe.com. The site offers only PCR tests.
For more testing options and information, visit https://scdhec.gov/covid19/covid-19-testing-locations.
COVID-19 in Beaufort County
Late last month, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control said it’s now safe for Beaufort County residents to ditch their face masks in public indoor spaces, citing new COVID-19 guidance unveiled last week.
The federal agency said it was easing its county-level recommendations for coronavirus precautions, shifting to a strategy that is less focused on completely eliminating COVID-19’s spread. The new guidance is instead aimed at preventing health-care systems from being overwhelmed by the pathogen.
Under the new CDC guidance, Beaufort County as of last week had a low level of COVID-19 risk, which means the CDC is not recommending that people wear face coverings in public.
The new guidance relies on mathematical calculations that focus on COVID-19 hospitalizations more than case trends. The formulas can be found online: bit.ly/CDCPandemicGuidance
The CDC has essentially made its masking recommendations less strict and is attempting to establish some level of normalcy in parts of the country that have maintained mask rules in recent months.
Beaufort County, as of last week, was averaging 26 newly confirmed coronavirus infections per day, according to the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control.
A month ago, that average was 270 cases per day.
The CDC is continuing to urge county residents to stay up-to-date on COVID-19 vaccinations and get tested if exhibiting symptoms.
