Marblehead Officials Meet To Assure Coronavirus Testing Fix

MARBLEHEAD, MA — The first day of drive-thru coronavirus testing in Marblehead Friday afternoon did not exactly go off without a hitch.

While Town Administrator Jason Silva said he was happy with the logistics of the operation overall, he regrets that dozens of residents who pre-registered for testing had to be turned away.

Silva told Patch that a meeting with town officials and Cataldo Ambulance was held Monday morning to ensure that everyone registered for the next day of testing on Tuesday will receive a test.

"There were between 50 and 60 people who had pre-registered to get tested and we were not tested on Friday," he said. "So (Monday) we went over the next three days of testing to make sure what happened on Friday will not happen again."

Marblehead police cited "less testing staff available than anticipated" for the issue.

While Silva declined to assess blame, he said has been assured that all who signed up on Friday will be tested either through coming back to the Tuesday testing or through making other arrangements through Cataldo Ambulance.

"Cataldo has made a special effort to reach out to those people," Silva said, "anybody that they have been able to identify who was turned away."

Testing this month will be Tuesday from 8 a.m. to noon, this upcoming Friday from 8 a.m. to noon and Dec. 21 from 2 to 6 p.m. at Temple Emanu-El on Atlantic Avenue. Residents had to pre-register to be tested and are asked to bring some patience.

"There will be waits," Silva said. "We are trying to keep the wait time as limited as possible. That's why we are doing the pre-registration, but even with the pre-registration times people will have to wait."

The Marblehead testing was designed to have a capacity of 300 people per day.

Those traveling along Atlantic Avenue during test hours are advised to stay to the left in order to stay out of the drive-thru line extending onto the main road.

"We kind of knew that was going to happen," Silva said. "We were ready to handle the queuing. That was part or the goal to cap the amount of people tested so we could manage it in a way that was orderly and reduced the time to the extend possible. In some communities, you are seeing people waiting for two, two-and-a-half hours."

Silva said most people on Friday who did get tested waited less than an hour.

"We had a lot of police and fire personnel making sure it did run smoothly," Silva said. "Other than the incident of people being turned away, the logistics of the operations went very well."

More information and testing updates can be found here.

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