Coastal Health District officials are asking residents getting tested for COVID-19 at the Savannah Civic Center to help them out by pre-registering for the test, due to heightened demand.

Here’s a Friday afternoon email from CHD spokeswoman Sally SIlbermann:

The public health COVID-19 testing site at the Savannah Civic Center is experiencing a tremendous increase in demand.

 Yesterday, more than 1,000 specimens were collected. Last week, the average was just over 300 specimens collected in a day. While appointments are not required, pre-registration is strongly encouraged and will help the line move more quickly for everyone. 

Residents can pre-register by going to gachd.org/covidtest and clicking on the “Pre-register for testing at the Civic Center” link under Testing in Savannah/Chatham County. When residents come to the site without having pre-registered, staff members must take the time to collect information on site which slows down the process.

Also as a reminder, there are additional opportunities for testing at other commercial testing sites. To find out where COVID testing is offered, go to https://dph.georgia.gov/covidtesting.