By Joshua Huff, sports editor
BIRMINGHAM – Coronavirus testing at the Church of the Highlands has exceeded 2,000 tests throughout this past week.
The church reported that 798 tests were conducted on Thursday.
Testing on Friday was cut short as storms are set to roll in the area later in the afternoon.
High demand for the tests on Tuesday forced the Church of the Highlands to relocate its drive-thru testing to one of its campuses off of Grants Mill Road. The Grandview campus was inundated with people, which backed up traffic on Highway 280. More than a thousand cars lined up to be tested, but the facility was only capable of testing around 400 at the time.
That ability increased on Wednesday as the church was able to test 630 people.
Following the site’s closure on Friday, the site will reopen at 6:30 a.m. on Saturday and begin testing at 9 a.m. Testing will not take place on Sunday.
The actual test itself involves a doctor speaking to the patient through a cellphone and then evaluating said patient through the car window. Patients are not allowed to roll down the window until the final few seconds where a health care practitioner garbed in protective gear will swab them.
Those with health insurance will be billed at a later date while those who are uninsured will have to pay for the test.
As of Friday morning, there were 81 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Alabama. Thirty-six of those confirmed cases are in Jefferson County. There are still no deaths associated with the outbreak in the state.
The Church of the Highlands, a Pentecostal ministry, is one of the largest churches in the country. It typically averages 50,000 for weekend services.