At the State Health Department Health Center in Lantana, the free testing for COVID 19 continues every Monday to Friday.
“We’re hoping our tests come back negative,” says Sean Guerrier, who says he is vaccinated and was suffering with flu-like symptoms earlier this week.
“It wasn’t until my dad said just to be a good citizen you may want to go get tested,” he said.
The health center is one of at least 7 sites in Palm Beach County offering free testing.
Other sites include the state health center in Belle Glade, the VA Medical Center and the Riviera Beach Integrated Care Center.
“Some weeks it’s busy,” said Kianza Black, an intern at the center which is offering free testing for Florida residents from Monday to Thursday.
Health experts say among the many testing positive are the unvaccinated.
“Our positivity is rising, our hospitalizations are starting to have an uptick,” said Dr. Larry Bush, a vaccine trial investigator in Wellington.
Dr. Bush said vaccinations are proving effective at both stopping the virus and keeping the infected out of the hospital.
“What we’re seeing now is even the people who have been vaccinated there are breakthrough symptomatic cases, what the trial people are still saying is yes but it’s protecting them from being hospitalized,” Dr. Bush said.
Amanda Carr of Palm Beach County had a bout of COVID-19 after she said she received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
“That situation was kind of a shock for me, definitely wasn’t expecting to be sick,” she says.
Now that she is better, she said she is trying to convince friends in their 20’s and 30’s to get vaccinated.
“In reality, it did what it exactly was supposed to do, preventing me from ending up in the hospital,” Carr said.