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New High-Capacity COVID Testing Facility Opens At Bruce C. Bolling Building In Roxbury

ROXBURY (CBS) – A new push to increase COVID testing in Boston is underway as the city opened a high-capacity site Tuesday in Roxbury.

The new clinic at the Bruce C. Bolling building on Washington Street is one of three new sites coming as part of the city's effort to provide free testing to all Boston residents.

This site is expected to test about 1,000 people a day. It will be open Tuesday through Saturday from 12-to-8 p.m. with walk-ins welcome.

The city says they want no more than a 30-minute wait time. Fifty people can wait inside while 20 people self-swab and five register. If the line is long, people will then be given tickets with a time to return later.

Cambridge-based CIC Health is running the site. The self PCR tests offer results expected within 24 hours.

"I am so excited at the potential for this to be one more way to cut down the lines that we've been seeing across the city," Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said.

The Bolling testing clinic will be one of three stand-alone testing sites fully backed by the Boston Public Health Commission. The other two are set to open in Dorchester and Mattapan.

Free walk-in testing is already available at the Anna M. Cole Community Center in Jamaica Plain and at the West End House in Allston.

Executive Director of the Boston Public Health Commission Dr. Bisola Ojikutu said she is cautiously optimistic about some of the city's COVID data but "our hospitalizations are still increasing. Adult hospitalizations are up 35% compared to last week and pediatric hospitalizations are up 56%. We know that hospitalizations lag behind testing so we may continue to see increases in hospitalizations for the next couple of weeks."

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