Health & Fitness
Extra Day Of Coronavirus Testing In Worcester Before Christmas
The main PCR testing site at the Mercantile Center will open for tests and vaccines on Thursday.
WORCESTER, MA — Worcester-area residents will get one more day to get a coronavirus test before Christmas, health officials announced on Wednesday.
The city's main testing site at the Mercantile Center, which offers free PCR testing, was previously only scheduled to be open on Monday and Tuesday. UMass Memorial, which runs the site, announced Wednesday the facility will be open from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on Thursday.
Testing sites across the state have been overwhelmed this week as residents prepare to gather for Christmas alongside a surge of COVID-19 cases and the arrival of omicron.
On Wednesday, the testing site in Marlborough closed early after it reached capacity ahead of its scheduled noon closing. On Tuesday, a video of a testing line stretching across multiple levels of the Cambridgeside Galleria pinged around social media.
Worcester is also one of about 102 communities in the state that received a shipment of rapid tests to distribute to residents. Some of Worcester's 67,000 test kits have been distributed to community groups serving low-income residents. See the full list here.
