Patients must call 205-975-1881 first and be screened by a provider who will then schedule an appointment time for testing — if the caller has a positive screen for COVID-19 symptoms.

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Effective today, the Downtown COVID-19 Testing Site hours will change. The new hours are as follows:

Call Center: 7 a.m. – 7 p.m., seven days a week, except for Tuesdays, when hours are 7 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Testing site: 9 a.m. – 11:15 a.m., seven days a week

Patients must call 205-975-1881 first and be screened by a provider who will then schedule an appointment time for testing — if the caller has a positive screen for COVID-19 symptoms. Symptoms include cough, fever and shortness of breath.

High call volumes may result in long hold times and or busy signals. If you get a busy signal when calling, please hang up and wait 10 minutes before attempting to call again.

Birmingham-area hospitals and the Jefferson County Department of Health opened the appointment-based community coronavirus testing site — the Downtown COVID-19 Testing Site — on the campus of the University of Alabama at Birmingham on Monday, March 23. The following is a snapshot of statistics gathered since the call site went live on Sunday, March 22. All numbers are through March 31:

6,419 calls to the Call Center

3,419 calls screened as positive for testing

3,012 tests ordered

1,409 test results returned (turnaround time from Quest is up to 7 days)

97 COVID-19 positive test results

6.9 percent of returned results have been positive

Here is a look at the ages of those who have called into the Call Center for a screening, and the percentage of males and females:

In addition to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention COVID-19 website, you can also visitwww.uab.edu/coronavirus for the updated tips and information. We have resources including helpful handouts and videos that can further educate the public on prevention efforts and precautions.

HelpBeatCOVID19.org, will provide public health officials insight into underserved areas based on the symptomatic data collected from the region and could help inform and enhance public health observation.