Coronavirus Test Collection Site Opens At Tropicana In St. Pete

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — A new drive-thru coronavirus test collection site at Tropicana Field in downtown St. Petersburg opens to the public on June 29, a BayCare news release said.

Pinellas County, the city of St. Petersburg and Pinellas County Department of Health will work to provide logistical and public safety support for the site while BayCare Health System will provide the clinical teams to operate the service.

During its first week of opening, the site will operate Monday through Thursday from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. and be closed July 3 in observance of Independence Day. In weeks that follow, the site will operate Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m.

"Working together within our local community is how we will get on the other side of this global pandemic,” said St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman in a news release. “With both public and private partners, we will expand access to testing which is critical to beating this virus. My thanks to all our partners for everything they are doing for the health and safety of our citizens."

This location opens a week after BayCare closed its Pinellas drive-thru test collection site in the Carillon office complex in north St. Pete. The site, which had operated for 14 weeks, saw demand triple in one week, causing traffic problems for neighboring businesses and testing more than 700 in its last two days of operation.

“Testing is an important weapon in the fight against COVID-19,” said Dr. UIyee Choe, director of the Florida Department of Health in Pinellas County in a news release. “All those involved are committed to public health and know it is important that we have this testing capacity."

BayCare also operates drive-thru sites in Polk and Pasco Counties and is supporting a drive-thru site at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa that is also a partnership between government and health care providers.

This article originally appeared on the St. Pete Patch