Rite Aid is opening up its COVID-19 testing sites to teenagers, which the company said Tuesday “is an important next step in continuing to fight COVID-19.”
Under the company’s expanded program, parents or legal guardians of individuals 13 to 18 may create Baseline COVID-19 accounts so they may be screened and tested.
“Parents or legal guardians must provide consent for individuals under 18, show their government issued identification and must accompany their children to the appointment and supervise them during the test,” the company announced in a news release.
In partnership with the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Rite Aid’s free testing is now available to teens and adults “regardless of whether (an) individual is symptomatic or asymptomatic,” it added.
Among the drive-thru testing sites Rite Aid operates is one that is located at the Rite Aid at 110 Main Street in Hellertown.
The company’s two other testing sites in the Lehigh Valley are at their stores at 2108 MacArthur Road in Whitehall and 7719 Main Street in Fogelsville, respectively.
Rite Aid’s COVID-19 testing locations offer self-swab nasal tests that are overseen by Rite Aid pharmacists. The testing sites operate Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. as well as Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Testing will be temporarily unavailable at Rite Aid sites on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 26, and Friday, Nov. 27.)
Adults must provide government-issued identification and all applicants for COVID-19 testing must pre-register at RiteAid.com in order to schedule a time slot for testing.
Rite Aid currently operates more than 300 COVID-19 testing sites in 15 states.
“We’re proud to continue serving as an essential part of the pandemic response in the neighborhoods we serve,” said Heyward Donigan, president and chief executive officer, Rite Aid.
On Wednesday, the Pennsylvania Department of Health announced that it had confirmed 6,759 new cases of the coronavirus. Health officials also announced that the number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care had increased to 826 and that nearly 4,000 people are now hospitalized with the illness statewide.
