The county health department tested 240 people for COVID-19 at a Sunday drive-up event held at its office, 108 Lee Street East in Charleston.
The office was one of many drive-up testing sites in the county in 2020. The health department ran these events with the Kanawha County Emergency Ambulance Authority, the Charleston Fire Department and the West Virginia National Guard. Testing at these events was free.
Testing grew fast in September 2020, when the county briefly reached the red level on the state’s county alert map. From September 16 to September 21, 2020, 2,317 tests were done in the county. By the end of that month, the health department had held 58 drive-up events and recorded more than 18,000 tests since March.
See also COVID-19 testing.