Fall River, New Bedford to Get New COVID-19 Testing Centers

Fall River and New Bedford are on a list of 12 densely populated Massachusetts cities that will see new COVID-19 testing capacity through their community health centers.

The state will coordinate with the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers and Quest Diagnostics to ship 2,200 tests per day to centers in Quincy, Brockton, Lowell, Fall River, New Bedford, Worcester, Provincetown and multiple sites in Boston, Gov. Charlie Baker announced today.

While Baker did not name the testing centers in the South Coast area, the Greater New Bedford Community Health Center and the Healthfirst Family Care Center in Fall River have previously received COVID-19 funding from the state.

Community health centers in areas of high need with the ability to increase their testing capacities will be prioritized, according to a press release from the Baker-Polito administration.  Quest since Friday has sent over 2,255 kits to health centers in Boston and Brockton. Additional COVID-19 test kits are being shipped today and tomorrow to 12 community health centers. Quest Diagnostics has committed to ship an additional 5,000 COVID-19 test kits to those centers, the release said.

This is a developing story that will be updated with additional information.