AMHERST — Hampshire County’s first free COVID-19 testing site for the public opened at the Mullins Center on the University of Massachusetts campus Monday as the result of a $5 million grant from the state.
After repeated calls from local legislators and municipal officials to the Baker-Polito administration to add a county site to the state’s Stop the Spread program, Baker announced Dec. 7 that the Public Health Promotion Center at UMass would be home to an appointment-only, walk-in site for asymptomatic individuals.
With the UMass location, expected to be open four days a week until Jan. 21 and for more limited hours through mid-March, the state initiative will have 50 testing sites conducting 110,000 free tests per week.
Previously, a drive-through site on the Holyoke Community College campus was the closest site to Hampshire County.
“I’m delighted it’s part of the Stop the Spread program and offers Hampshire County residents an accessible, available test site with quick turnaround on testing results,” said state Rep. Mindy Domb, D-Amherst.
Depending on the volume of tests being administered, results can be provided to those tested, anyone age 10 and up, within 24 to 48 hours.
State Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa, D-Northampton, wrote in an email that she is grateful the Baker administration has finally recognized that the people of Hampshire County deserve access to testing, which will keep individuals, families, and communities safer.
“In Northampton, we have witnessed, week after week, the economic pain and fear caused by limited testing, with businesses closing every time there is exposure until all workers can get tested,” Sabadosa said. “People have been unable to determine whether COVID exposure means they have actually contracted COVID and have had to put their lives on hold as they try to get tested.”
In August, Domb, Rep. Daniel Carey, D-Easthampton, and Sen. Jo Comerford, D-Northampton, were among 10 legislators from western Massachusetts who sent a letter to Secretary of Health and Human Services MaryLou Sudders and Commissioner of Public Health Monica Bharel appealing for a testing site in Hampshire County.
“Our constituents remain concerned, interested, and committed to being part of the solution to the pandemic,” the legislators wrote in that letter, which came in advance of the return of college students to the UMass, Amherst College, and Hampshire College campuses.
The UMass location, which is in Hadley and thus part of the district represented by Carey and Comerford, will be able to process about 1,000 tests per day, said Jeff Hescock, executive director of the Environmental Health and Safety office at UMass.
Hescock said UMass was prepared to act quickly after already doing up to 13,000 tests per week for students, faculty and staff over the fall semester.
UMass Health Director Ann Becker said nursing students and students of public health are thrilled at the opportunity to do the testing.
“As cases rise everywhere, this is our way at UMass to give back to our community,” Becker said.
Area residents will have to make appointments, and people exhibiting symptoms should instead talk to their health care providers and inform their contacts. The university has launched www.umass.edu/communitycovidtest which provides more details.
Like legislators, Amherst Town Manager Paul Bockelman called for a Hampshire County testing site to serve area residents and said that the need for asymptomatic testing has been obvious.
“We have long advocated for a testing site in or near Amherst. Testing is a critical piece in the battle to address the COVID-19 pandemic,” Bockelman said.
Bockelman also credited the university’s testing operation, which he has seen first hand, as being high quality, efficient, and “very well run.”
The university uses what is known as PCR testing, which Peter Reinhart, founding director of the Institute for Applied Life Sciences, calls the “gold standard.”
The IALS Clinical Testing Center provides nasal swabs and tubes and then analyzes test results using RNA extraction/qPCR. The grant will support the testing materials and analyses for the community tests, all done on campus.
UMass Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy issued a statement in which he said the university was well prepared and will act quickly to provide the vital public service to safeguard the health of the community.
“We deeply appreciate receiving this support from Gov. Baker as we leverage the skill and knowledge developed at our test processing site at IALS,” Subbaswamy said.
With a testing site secured, Domb said other issues related to COVID-19 will need to be addressed.
“Now we have to make sure that we can offer quarantine support for people who may need it,” Domb said.
