Yakima Valley Memorial testing site at YVC to remain open through June
Yakima Valley Memorial and Yakima Valley College are pleased to announce that the free community COVID-19 testing site located on YVC’s Yakima Campus will remain open through June 30, 2022. The effort is a partnership between Yakima Valley Memorial, Yakima Valley College and the University of Washington. The UW provides funding and does all of the laboratory test work for the site.
“The University of Washington, Yakima Valley Memorial, Signal Health, and YVC understand the importance of community testing,” says Michael Vachon, test site supervisor. “Even with the current decrease in COVID-19 cases and related hospitalizations there is always a need for a low-barrier community test site. The virus that causes COVID-19 has shown itself to be adaptable. Variants are global, difficult to predict, and can cause another wave of infections. Having the infrastructure in place to deal with these waves means our community needs some form of testing that is readily available. The COVID-19 test site at YVC has shown itself to be an accessible, low barrier test site that has administered over 38,000 COVID-19 tests. While we hope the number of cases contributes to decrease, we are ready in case another variant becomes a concern.”
COVID-19 testing is open to anyone with symptoms, or anyone who has been exposed or is concerned about exposure. Tests can be performed on infants as young as 3 months and results are available from one to three days after testing.
The YVC site is a walk-up clinic, where you park and walk up to the test site, located at 810 S. 14th Ave., in a parking lot on the north side of the college. For those unable to leave their vehicles, there are ADA parking signs in the patient parking lot with the phone number to the test trailer. When called, volunteers will come out to cars to do the test. COVID-19 testing is available Tuesday through Saturday, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Appointments are strongly encouraged, but the clinic can accommodate walk-ins. Individuals can pre-register online. The test is free of charge and open to everyone, with or without identification. If you do not have ID or do not wish to provide it, site staff will still test you.
Spanish-speaking staff are available for translation.
Additional testing sites can be found online (Spanish). Individuals can also call 2-1-1 for a testing location near them.