Oakland County Executive David Coulter and two health care systems are partnering with faith-based communities in Pontiac and Southfield to offer free drive-thru COVID-19 testing at 14 locations beginning next week.
Coulter said that testing will involve 15 churches in Pontiac and Southfield and be conducted by McLaren Oakland in Pontiac and Ascension Providence Hospital-Southfield Campus in partnership with the Oakland County Health Division. The testing will be offered at 14 locations representing the churches in Pontiac and Southfield. Two of the churches offer testing at one location.
“The impact of COVID-19 on our communities of color has shined a bright light on long-standing racial disparities in access to health care,” Coulter said. “It is unacceptable, and we are responding by taking testing directly to at-risk individuals which will give us the ability to track and mitigate a re-emergence of the virus.”
The testing partnership, which is supported by the Oakland County Board of Commissioners and Commissioners Janet Jackson, Angela Powell and Nancy Quarles, provides free drive-thru testing at the locations beginning Monday through July 2. Preregistration is required at www.oakgov.com/covid/testing. Results are expected in 48-72 hours.
“I am grateful for the leadership of these pastors who are helping us get the word out about the importance of testing,” Coulter said. “It is vital that health care is available and accessible to all residents throughout Oakland County. I am grateful to Ascension and McLaren for their support.”
The county has been transparent with data from early in the pandemic, releasing cases by zip code and by demographic. When the race of over 50 percent of cases was unknown the Health Division set up a task force of staff to go back and collect that data. It revealed that African- Americans were disproportionally impacted by the virus representing 33 percent of the COVID-19 cases and 36.2 percent
of the fatalities. This information is available on the county dashboard at https://www.oakgov.com/covid/dashboard.html.
The Health Division and Honor Community Health offer drive-thru testing at the Oakland County Complex, 1200 N. Telegraph Road in Pontiac. Testing is Tuesday and Thursday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Results are expected in 24-48 hours. Testing is also available at the Health Division’s Southfield office at 27725 Greenfield Road on Monday and Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Testing is available on Fridays in the parking lot of the Novi Civic Center, 45175 W. 10 Mile Road in Novi.
Preregistration is available by calling the Health Division’s Nurse on Call at 1-800-848-5533.
The dates, times and locations for the faith-based testing are:
Pontiac locations:
• Monday, June 22, 8 a.m. to noon, New Bethel Missionary Baptist Church, 174 Branch St.
• Monday, June 22, 1 to 4 p.m., New Birth International Church, 124 W. Columbia Ave.
• Tuesday, June 23, 8 a.m. to noon, Shiloh Baptist Church, 474 University Drive
• Tuesday, June 23, 1 to 4 p.m., Prospect Missionary Baptist Church and Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church, 351 Prospect St.
• Wednesday, June 24, 1 to 4 p.m., Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church, 404 Cesar Chavez
• Wednesday, June 24, 8 a.m. to noon, Welcome Missionary Baptist Church, 143 Oneida St.
• Thursday, June 25, 8 a.m. to noon, New Mount Moriah International Missionary Baptist Church, 313 E Walton Blvd.
• Thursday, June 25, 1 to 4 p.m., Trinity Missionary Baptist Church, 113-123 Wessen St.
Southfield locations:
• Friday, June 26 8 a.m. to noon, Hope United Methodist, 26275 Northwestern Highway
• Friday, June 26, 1 to 4 p.m., First Baptist Church of Detroit, 21200 Southfield Road
• Monday, June 29, 1 to 4 p.m., New Hope Missionary Baptist Church, 23455 W. 9 Mile Road
• Tuesday, June 30, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Triumph Church - North Campus 15600 J.L. Hudson Drive
• Wednesday, July 1, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Christian Tabernacle 26555 Franklin Road
• Thursday, July 2, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Empowerment Church 24300 Southfield Road
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