With the COVID-19 positive test rate increasing dramatically across the city following the Thanksgiving holiday, North End Waterfront Health (NEW Health) announced it is expanding testing hours at its Hannover Street site for Charlestown and North End residents and NEW Health patients.
“The North End site has extended its Thursday hours, with an additional testing session from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.,” said NEW Health’s Mary Zanor. Zanor explained that the Thursday testing session ended at 12 p.m. but the need to increase testing and a citywide COVID spike made NEW Health decide to expand hours to help more people get tested.
There are over 30 testing sites across the city and last month NEW Health, an affiliate of Massachusetts General Hospital and Boston Medical Center, announced its site in both Charlestown and the North End will remain open to all residents and patients of the health center throughout the holiday and winter season.
According to Zanor, NEW Health testing sites opened this past summer to all NEW Health patients and all residents of Charlestown and the North End regardless of symptoms or insurance.
The North End site is open Tuesdays 8:30 a.m. to 12 p.m.and Thursday 8:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. and again from 1p.m. to 4 p.m. The site has been moved into the alleyway directly behind NEW Health at 332 Hanover Street in order to provide more cover from the elements. The new entrance is on North Bennet Street for walk-up patients only.
The Charlestown site is open Monday through Friday, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., and has been moved indoors to the Crossroads Resource Center at 15 Tufts Street. Both drive-up and walk-up options remain available.
Appointments are required and can be made by calling 857-238-1100 for the Charlestown testing site and 617-643-8000 for the North End location.
The two sites will remain open as long as needed in order to ensure NEW Health is doing its part to combat COVID spread in the community.
The COVID-19 test site initiative was announced by Walsh in May as a way to help fill any gaps in testing availability, prioritizing neighborhoods and populations that need dedicated testing efforts to create equitable access to testing.
In addition to the City’s two mobile testing sites, testing is available at over 30 locations across the city. Individuals can call the Mayor’s Health Line with any questions using 617-534-5050.
A full list of testing sites across Boston can be found at https://www.boston.gov/departments/public-health-commission/covid-19-testing-sites.