CVS says it will reach goal of opening 1,000 coronavirus test sites on Friday

CVS will reach its goal of opening 1,000 coronavirus testing sites across the country on Friday, the drug store chain announced. 

Final sites will open across 30 states and Washington, D.C., the company said in a press release. 

The company’s push to open coronavirus testing sites was announced at the end of April at an event at the White House, where President Trump touted the government’s partnership with a range of private companies, including CVS. 

CVS said it hopes to conduct up to 1.5 million tests per month “subject to availability of supplies and lab capacity” beginning in June. Since opening its first testing site in mid-March, the company said it has conducted almost 200,000 tests so far. 

The Trump administration has faced widespread criticism for the extremely slow initial rollout of testing. The situation has been improving more recently, but the number of tests still falls short of what experts say is necessary. Tests have reached a new high of about 400,000 per day in recent days, but that is still well short of the 900,000 per day that Harvard researchers estimated the country needs.

CVS said on Thursday its testing sites will be drive-thru locations using self swab tests for “individuals meeting CDC and state criteria who register in advance at CVS.com to schedule an appointment.”

Tests will then be sent to a lab and will take “approximately three days” to return results.