Free Coronavirus Testing This Week In Harrison, McDowell And Ohio Counties

West Virginia state and county health officials will host free coronavirus testing for residents of Ohio, McDowell and Harrison Counties on Friday and Saturday, June 5-6.

Testing will be available both days from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. No insurance is required, and you don’t have to be symptomatic.

Identification, or proof residency, however, is required.

In Harrison County, testing will be available at the Monticello Playground at 518 Monticello Avenue in Clarksburg.

In Ohio County, free testing will be at the Laughlin Memorial Chapel in Wheeling.

In McDowell County, testing will be held at two locations. On Friday, there will be testing at the Tug River Health Clinic in Gary. On Saturday, testing will be at the city hall building on Coal Heritage Road in Keystone.

This round of free testing is the latest as part of an initiative from the state to test more high-density population areas and West Virginia’s minority communities, which are disproportionately impacted by the coronavirus. According to data from the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources Tuesday morning, nearly 7 percent of the state’s positive cases were from black West Virginians, and almost 15 percent were from other minorities and those who don’t identify as white.

Meanwhile, African Americans only accounted for 3.6 percent of the state’s population in 2018 census estimates. 

With guidance from the COVID-19 Advisory Commission on African American Disparities, the West Virginia National Guard, the DHHR and local county health departments have hosted free testing over the last month in communities in the Eastern Panhandle, the Southern Coalfields, in and around Charleston and Morgantown.