Drive-through coronavirus testing pushed back to Wednesday at Orange County Convention Center

The Orange County Convention Center is now anticipated to become a drive-through testing site for the coronavirus on Wednesday, March 25.

At one point, officials had said the site could be ready as early as March 20, but later pushed the date back.

“The federal government and the state are working to set up the drive-thru testing site as quickly as possible,” a spokesperson for the Joint Information Center on COVID-19 for the State of Florida wrote in an email.

When ready, the site will be used to test health-care workers, first responders and those 65 and older with COVID-19 symptoms. Those meeting that criteria will be swabbed to obtain a sample, which will then be sent to a lab to be checked for the virus.

Operating hours are expected to be 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. -- or whenever testing supplies run out for the day.

Although the testing will be free, individuals are encouraged to bring their insurance card, the spokesperson said.

The testing could continue at the convention center, on International Drive in southwest Orlando, for up to two weeks, a spokeswoman for the venue told the Orlando Sentinel last week.

Orange County government volunteered the use of the convention center’s large parking lot as part of a statewide plan for setting up community-based testing sites.

At a news conference on Saturday, Gov. Ron DeSantis also said he expects to open more sites across the state, including in the Villages, the sprawling retirement community in Lake, Sumter and Marion counties.

He said it would be “Villages-style,” so could be testing for people who come in golf carts, a popular form of transportation in the community.

One testing site opened Friday in C.B. Smith Park in Pembroke Pines, a city in hard-hit Broward County. The National Guard helped prepare the site, which has been busy, according to the Sun-Sentinel. Officials told the South Florida newspaper that 745 cars were counted in a steady two-hour line on Friday, and 87 cars were turned away.

On Saturday, capacity was reached by 1:20 p.m. and those still waiting were told to go home and return at 9 a.m. Sunday.

The new testing site is one of three locations in Broward County, where three people have died from the virus.

As at the Pembroke Pines park, military personnel have been preparing the site at the Orange County Convention Center. Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings said National Guard troops would run the site because they are trained in handling large-scale medical responses.

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