Cleveland COVID-19 Mass Testing Center To Close This Month

CLEVELAND — As COVID-19 surges in southern and central Ohio, the state's National Guard is closing its mass testing site at Cleveland's Walker Center so it can move units to other parts of the state.

Gov. Mike DeWine plans to shift the Ohio National Guard south to open new testing sites in communities like Athens, Pomeroy and Jackson. However, moving those units will require closing testing locations in Cleveland — including the city's lone mass testing clinic.

The Walker Center will cease COVID-19 testing on Jan. 23.

The Walker Center opened as a COVID-19 mass testing site in late December. Northeast Ohio was in the midst of an unprecedented COVID-19 surge and area hospitals were begging the state and federal government for help. The Ohio National Guard was sent into Cleveland to open a mass testing site that would divert potentially sickened Ohioans away from emergency rooms and hospitals and into the queue at the Walker Center.

"Ohio hospitals appreciate this important support at a critical time where caregivers are working aggressively to meet the health care needs of our communities," the Ohio Hospital Association said in a statement issued after the Walker Center was operational.

Since opening, approximately 25,000 people have been tested for COVID-19 at the Walker Center. The Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals helped operate the site in collaboration with the Ohio National Guard.

Summit County's drive-thru testing site in Akron also closed last week. That site conducted nearly 12,000 tests over less than three weeks.

Currently, more than 6,000 people are hospitalized across Ohio due to COVID-19, the state hospital association said. Ohio is averaging more than 22,000 new COVID-19 cases and more than 350 new hospitalizations per day.

This article originally appeared on the Cleveland Patch