BATON ROUGE — While residents in East Baton Rouge Parish acclimate to life during Phase One of the state's gradual reopening, Capital City leaders are still taking steps to ensure that accessible virus testing is available to all citizens.

This is why Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome is working alongside other community leaders to expand the number of community testing sites throughout East Baton Rouge Parish. 

The expansion will offer mobile COVID-19 testing at various sites, Monday through Friday, throughout the month June. 

As this expansion of mobile testing sites takes place, testing at the Mayor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (MOHSEP) Community Testing Site at Baton Rouge General Mid City, will begin to wind down.

Over the next three weeks, operations at this Mid City site will be phased out and patients who once utilized MOSHEP will be directed to the recently opened CareSouth testing site on Florida Boulevard, which is less than a half-mile away. 

Additionally, beginning Monday, June 1st, the second MOHSEP Community Testing Site outside Our Lady of the Lake's North Campus on Airline Highway will transition to testing inside the clinic.

On Thursday, Mayor Broome issued a statement regarding the expansion of testing sites in the Parish, saying, "As our community has now entered Phase One of reopening, receiving a COVID-19 nasal swab test is one the most important steps our residents should take to protect their health and the health of their loved ones.”  

“These testing sites do not require a doctor’s order and are offered at no out-of-pocket cost to the patient. Everyone who believes they need a test, should take advantage of this valuable resource.”

The new mobile testing sites are in addition to about two dozen fixed testing sites in East Baton Rouge Parish. A list of mobile testing sites and fixed testing sites can be found here.

The mobile testing locations do not require an appointment and operate on a first-come, first-served basis. 

Interested patients should check the schedule every week for updates.

The expansion initiative is a partnership with Ochsner Baton Rouge, Our Lady of the Lake Medical Center, East Baton Rouge Parish School System, BREC, and a number of area Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC), including: CareSouth Medical and Dental, Open Health Care Clinic, RKM, and Southeast Community Health Systems.