5 Complaints Against Worcester Pop-Up COVID-19 Test Company: AG

WORCESTER, MA — A national chain of shady coronavirus testing sites has wracked up complaints from visitors in Massachusetts, including five complaints under review by Attorney General Maura Healey's office.

The Illinois-based Center for COVID Control has recently opened test sites in Worcester, Needham and Dartmouth. The company has about 300 locations nationwide.

The complaints sent to the attorney general mostly deal with long wait times for test results. The test sites purportedly offer free PCR tests and rapid antigen tests, advertising that rapid results typically take about three hours to return.

Visitors to the Worcester site along Grafton Street have reported wait times stretching as long as nine days. Those complaints mirror ones from other states where the Center for COVID Control has set up shop. At the Needham site, one woman told Boston 25 that she waited seven days and counting for results. The town reported local complaints to Healey's office.

Patch reached out to the company for comment on Tuesday, but has not heard back.

The Worcester site is not registered either at the city or state level. Worcester City Clerk Niko Vangjeli said since the Center for COVID Control is a limited liability corporation, it does not need to register locally. A Secretary of State spokesperson said companies don't have to register with the state, but do get added legal protection in Massachusetts if they do.

A spokesman for Worcester City Manager Ed Augustus Jr. on Tueday said officials were aware of the site, but could not get into specifics about whether any action was being taken.

According to the Illinois Secretary of State, the company is registered to a Rolling Meadows address and the manager is listed as Aleya Siyaj. According to Siyaj's LinkedIn profile, she is also the operator of an axe-throwing bar in South Barrington, Ill., and was previously the operator of a donut shop in Chicago.