Two Harford County COVID-19 testing sites closed Friday

The COVID-19 testing sites at Ripken Stadium in Aberdeen and the Epicenter in Edgewood closed Friday due to decreased demand, according to a spokesperson from the Harford County Health Department.

The county health department reported a positivity rate of 2.78% and a case rate of 7.1 per 100,000 Friday. The Ripken Stadium testing site opened Jan. 10, when the county reported a positivity rate of 30.19% and a case rate per 200.27 per 100,000.

Omnipoynt Solutions, of Washington, D.C., managed the two testing sites.

“We are very grateful for Omnipoynt Solutions for setting up these testing sites in a time of need,” said the county’s acting health officer, Marcy Austin. “This site [Ripken Stadium] was unique since it was a drive-thru option offering rapid and PCR tests, all highly requested by the public.”

Aaron Poynton, founder and CEO of Omnipoynt Solutions, said that the first week the Ripken site was open, around 2,500 tests were performed there.

“But as the positivity numbers have dropped, we’ve seen, week over week, a decline in testing needs,” Poynton said.

Poynton said that now Omnipoynt is now in “standby mode.” If there is another COVID-19 surge, the company will the have the infrastructure, lab and trained personnel to set the sites up again within about 48 hours.

“If there is another need to set up supplemental testing to augment what already exists, we could do so quickly,” he said.

Poynton noted that the COVID-19 virus has been unpredictable.

“It’s important that we all stay vigilant,” he said, “and we keep some of the basic public health infrastructure in place to be able to stand up quickly and not reinvent the wheel if there is another surge, or if there is another pandemic of some other virus in the future.”

Testing sites in the county can still be found on the county health department’s website, https://harfordcountyhealth.com/testing-in-harford/.