Citing 'historic low' demand, CDPHE announces closure of COVID-19 testing sites

DENVER — Almost exactly one year since Colorado peaked in both daily COVID-19 tests and positivity rates, the Colorado Department of Public Health an Environment (CDPHE) announced it would be closing the 20 remaining testing sites in the state.

The community testing sites will close Jan. 15.

CDPHE officials say the decision is due to the fact that Coloradans are overwhelmingly using at-home tests instead of driving to testing centers.

“Colorado is proud to have opened one of the first drive-thru testing sites in the country in March 2020. Since then, we have provided millions of tests to Coloradans at more than 150 community testing sites across Colorado,” said Colorado’s COVID-19 incident commander Scott Bookman, in a press release. “Coloradans have transitioned away from relying on large community testing sites and toward testing at home with widely available at-home rapid tests, health care providers, or local retail pharmacies.”

Colorado is transitioning its testing focus to traditional health care settings. The state will still supply free at-home tests through its distribution centers, which you can find here. CPDHE also pointed out that people can order tests from the federal government. In Denver, you can find free at-home tests at the city’s recreation centers.

Additionally, CDPHE said it would continue the free school testing program until at least the end of the school year.

At-home COVID-19 tests, which are antigen tests, are less accurate than the PCR tests, also known as molecular tests, that the state uses at the drive-through sites. While they are more accurate, the results of the PCR tests are not immediate. Nevertheless, public health experts say rapid, at-home tests are a key public health tool in this pandemic.

If local public health agencies see a need to continue with the community testing sites, CDPHE officials said the organization will help those local agencies use federal funds to keep testing going.

The most recent data from CDPHE show testing levels are still high in Colorado compared to previous periods of the pandemic. And this data do not include at-home and other antigen tests.

More COVID-19 data are available here.

Kyle Cooke is the digital media manager at Rocky Mountain PBS. You can reach him at kylecooke@rmpbs.org.