New Minnesota COVID-19 Testing Sites Start Opening Friday

ANOKA, Minn. (AP) — Minnesota’s newest COVID-19 community testing site will open at the National Guard Armory in Anoka on Friday, Gov. Tim Walz announced Thursday, while the Guard will help raise the capacity of a similar site in downtown St. Paul by 50%.

The moves to boost the state’s testing capacity amid the spike in omicron variant cases are building on the governors announcement on Tuesday, that the Guard and Minnesota Department of Health would stand up three new community testing sites to deal with the surging demand for testing.

“It’s going to be a challenging three weeks or so but we’ve got Minnesota’s best on duty here,” Walz said during a visit to the Anoka facility. “We’ve got our public health officials across the state, we’ve got our private-sector partners going.”

The Anoka Armory site will open at 11 a.m. Friday. A site at the armory in Cottage Grove will open next Thursday. The existing testing center at the Roy Wilkins Auditorium in St. Paul gained 50% more capacity as of Thursday — from 2,000 tests per day to 3,000 — thanks to support from the Guard.

While the sites accept walk-ins, Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm encouraged people to make appointments online.

The health department will open a new testing site in North Branch on Monday, officials announced earlier.