Free COVID-19 testing site on Hilton Head will close due to freezing rain forecast
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COVID-19 in the Lowcountry
Here’s the latest on the omicron variant surge, COVID-19 guidance and more in the Lowcountry.
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A Hilton Head Island coronavirus testing site will be closed on Friday and Saturday due to winter weather that could turn parts of Beaufort County icy.
BrightStar Care, a home health care provider, will not provide free tests at Chaplin Community Park because of the forecast, the town announced late Wednesday.
The company, though, will offer polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, testing on Sunday from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at 11 Castnet Drive.
After Sunday, BrightStar Care will resume its regular testing schedule, which is 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays.
Although not required, clinic organizers recommend that people pre-register for testing at the Chaplin site: bit.ly/ChaplinParkTesting
A bulletin from the National Weather Service in Charleston says a cold front will push through the area Thursday, according to previous reporting from The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette. With the weather pattern, widespread freezing rain is possible early Friday evening through Saturday morning across much of southeast South Carolina and Georgia.
“Right now, there’s uncertainty in how cold the atmosphere will be” in the Hilton Head area, said lead meteorologist Steven Taylor. The forecast shows temperatures right at the freezing mark for the island.
That means the greatest risk for freezing rain, as of Wednesday afternoon, would be inland near Beaufort, north toward Yemassee and Walterboro.
The demand for coronavirus testing, meanwhile, has skyrocketed in recent weeks amid the Lowcountry’s surge of omicron infections.
South Carolina’s testing capacity has been stretched to its limit. Many residents waited in their cars for almost three hours last week to get tested at a state-run site on Hilton Head. And the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control publicly apologized Tuesday for the “substandard performance” of some testing vendors.
Beaufort County, as of Wednesday, was averaging 370 newly confirmed coronavirus infections per day, which was nearly a record high.
This story was originally published January 20, 2022 at 11:06 AM.
