MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – There were dwindling lines for coronavirus testing at Hard Rock Stadium on Monday as Governor Ron DeSantis paid a visit.
Among other things, the governor discussed bringing state of the art, rapid COVID-19 tests to all testing sites in Florida.
Currently, it can take several days for patients who have been tested for coronavirus to get their results, but these new tests could take that down from days to just minutes.
"This is a 45 minute rapid test," DeSantis said. "We have sent 1,750 to Memorial Healthcare System in Broward (County). We’ve also sent 500 to northern Florida."
The Governor said he also has orders in for a five minute test.
All these technological advances are being rushed as the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the state, and especially here in South Florida, continues to grow.
DeSantis announced a new drive-thru testing site that opened Monday in Palm Beach County, and another one opening Tuesday in Miami-Dade County.
The site is located at Charles Hadley Park in Northwest Miami-Dade.
"If I get the rapid test to come in, they're going to be making 50,000 of those a day," DeSantis said.
Until now, the criteria at local testing sites, which are seeing shorter lines, has been for people 65 years old and up and first responders. Now the governor is saying everyone needs to think about expanding the criteria based on the spread.
“As much as we can expand, without giving people false hope, if we have the supplies, expand it, DeSantis said. “I think that’s a good thing.”
More than 5,000 tests have been administered at the Hard Rock Stadium site alone, and DeSantis also discussed a mistake that caused several people to have to come back to be re-tested.