Palm Beach County Mayor Dave Kerner said that a rapid coronavirus antigen testing program, which can give people results within hours, will be made available to the public this week.
Antigen testing will be at the FITTEAM Ballpark of the Palm Beaches testing site in West Palm Beach, Kerner said Friday.
About 600 to 700 tests will be available for people 65 or older, younger than 18 or if is symptomatic of the virus.
Kerner said the positive results from the test are highly accurate.
“Antigen testing would be very useful for our first responders, deputy sheriffs, police officers, fire rescue, so that we don’t have to put them in a quarantine for 14 days, thereby losing very essential personnel and staff that need to be out on the street protecting us,” Kerner said.
The positive results for the antigen test are very accurate. But if a person tests negative, they should confirm that result by taking a PCR test.
As of Thursday, the county's positivity rate was 6.5 percent.
