AUGUSTA, Maine — The Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and MaineHealth on Thursday announced five new “swab and send” COVID-19 testing sites will open next week. The five sites are in addition to the 22 previously announced, bringing the statewide total of swab and send sites to 27.
The new MaineHealth sites will be in Damariscotta, Rockport, Brunswick, Norway, and Farmington. MaineHealth says they will begin accepting appointments Thursday.
DHHS says the 27 sites ensure that approximately 90 percent of residents can get tested within 30 minutes of their home.
“With these new sites, Maine continues to make progress in expanding access to testing so that those at risk of COVID-19 may take the necessary steps to protect themselves, their families, and other Maine people,” Governor Janet Mills said. “This important effort is crucial to mitigating the spread of this deadly virus and keeping Maine people safe and healthy.”
The testing sites will operate as drive-through testing facilities. The Brunswick site, at Mid Coast-Parkview Health, will open on Monday, followed by the other four sites throughout next week. Appointments are required and may be made by phone.
The 27 DHHS-sponsored swab and send sites are:
- Augusta: MaineGeneral
- Bangor: Northern Light
- Bar Harbor: MDI Hospital (currently operational for frontline workforce testing for participating businesses)
- Belfast: Penobscot Community Health Care (PCHC)
- Blue Hill: Northern Light
- Brewer: PCHC
- Brunswick: MaineHealth (operational on August 24)
- Calais: Calais Regional Hospital
- Damariscotta: MaineHealth (operational on August 26)
- Dover-Foxcroft: Northern Light
- Ellsworth: Northern Light
- Farmington: MaineHealth (operational on August 27 )
- Fort Kent: Northern Maine Medical Center
- Greenville: Northern Light
- Kittery: Promerica Health (mobile, operational on August 25)
- Lincoln: Penobscot Valley Hospital
- Norway: MaineHealth (operational on August 25 )
- Old Town: PCHC
- Portland: Northern Light
- Pittsfield: Northern Light
- Presque Isle: Northern Light
- Rockport: MaineHealth (operational on August 27 )
- Sanford: York County Community Action Corp./Nasson Health Care
- Skowhegan: Redington-Fairview General Hospital (operational in mid-September)
- South Portland: Northern Light (mobile)
- Waterville: Northern Light
- Westbrook: City of Westbrook
DHHS also announced that a mobile testing site operated by Promerica Health, first announced on July 14, will initially launch at the Maine Visitor Information Center in Kittery on Tuesday, August 25. Promerica will begin accepting appointments beginning this evening at covidtestforme.com. It will operate from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays, and from noon to 7 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays through the end of August, with similar hours in September.
The sites will send samples to the Maine CDC's Health and Environmental Testing Laboratory (HETL) for testing and offer specimen collection free of charge to individuals who believe they may have COVID-19 or could have been exposed to the virus, with or without symptoms.
The swab and send sites help Maine meet the primary goal of the $52.7 million of federal funding the Mills Administration announced in May: to enhance prevention, detection, and mitigation of the spread of COVID-19 in Maine.
These 27 sites complement the roughly 40 current testing sites already available to the public.
Some of the organizations operating swab and send sites, as well as other organizations, are offering testing to their patients at additional sites as well. For a complete and frequently updated list of COVID-19 testing sites in Maine, visit Get-Tested-COVID19.org.
Maine DHHS is also separately supporting York Hospital in its drive-through point-of-care testing site which has been open since July 1, 2020.
Mills will lead the Maine CDC coronavirus briefing on Thursday with Dr. Nirav Shah, Maine DHHS Commissioner Jeanne Lambrew, and Maine Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner Heather Johnson.
Keep up with our coronavirus blog for live updates.
