The Orange County Convention Center will offer rapid antigen coronavirus testing moving forward.
Results are available in fifteen minutes. Online appointments are encouraged at that location.
Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings said officials are now requiring individuals to produce their health insurance cards when they get tested at the facility.
“More than likely the state is trying to determine at some point if individuals are covered by health insurance, the state will look to get reimbursed for the testing that they're doing. Otherwise, why would they ask for your health insurance card? So I think this is a goal of the state to eventually look to have insurance companies perhaps pay their fair share of the testing costs throughout the state of Florida.”
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Anyone of any age can get tested at the site, 7 days a week from 9 am until 5 pm.
The health officer for the Florida Department of Health in Orange County says testing is especially important when it comes to college age students who are at a higher risk of getting COVID-19
Dr. Raul Pino says 50 percent of all coronavirus cases reported Monday were people aged between 15 and 34. And in the last fourteen days, 75 percent of all cases are people 18 to 28 years old.
Still, Pino says even though cases have increased at the University of Central Florida campus and in bars nearby, the worst outbreak is at Courtyards Care Center, an assisted living facility.
“Last week they had over 50 cases overall accumulated during the last three months. We were there, we did test twice. I don’t know the results yet from last Friday, that’s what I will have tomorrow.”
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Pino said they re-tested everyone at the facility who originally received a negative result.
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