Miami-Dade adds at-home COVID-19 testing as Florida case counts climb to second-highest ever

As Florida’s COVID-19 case counts Thursday rose to the second-highest level since the onset of the pandemic, Miami-Dade County opened up a new avenue for testing and added one more satellite test site for residents to visit.

The county is now offering at-home COVID-19 testing for individuals of all ages who were exposed to the virus but can’t leave their homes. To request an at-home test, call 305-614-1716 on weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

“It’s especially important that we make these essential services available to our most vulnerable, including those who are homebound,” Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said in a statement. “Getting tested if you have symptoms or have been exposed is essential to preventing the spread, and that’s why we have worked so hard to keep free testing widely available and to expand to meet the recent surge in demand.”

Residents may also go to a new testing site at the Miami Springs Community Center, which is open 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

The added testing services, which join about 30 others in Miami-Dade, come amid a skyrocketing number of positive COVID-19 cases that have flooded testing sites across the county. Those sites have seen lines stretch long, with patients waiting hours.

On Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 67,369 new COVID-19 cases from Wednesday — the second-highest daily total since the pandemic’s March 2020 onset and second only to the 75,735 infections recorded Dec. 30.

Miami-Dade’s seven-day positivity rate — the number of tests that came back positive for the virus — was 35% as of Thursday, according to the county’s coronavirus webpage.

Last week, Miami-Dade opened additional testing sites at the Youth Fairgrounds at Tamiami Park (open every day from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.) and the Dolphin Station Park & Ride Facility in Doral (open every day from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.).

The county also expanded hours at its Zoo Miami testing site, which is now operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and distributed some 152,000 take-home rapid COVID-19 test kits to residents.

On Wednesday, the Miami Herald reported the omicron COVID-19 variant has sidelined 114 bus operators, which has forced the county to consider implementing temporary transit cuts.

About 10% of the county’s police force is also out because of the virus. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue is out 180 employees. The county’s Corrections Department switched its officers to 12-hour shifts last month to compensate for what is now 148 officers who are sick from the virus.