DENVER — The Denver Department of Public Health & Environment (DDPHE) opened its newest COVID-19 community testing site Monday at Ruby Hill Park, closing it just hours after testing began with officials citing technology issues and long lines.
Tammy Vigil with DDPHE said there was was an outage with a generator that powered the testing site, leading to long wait times and the decision to close the site at 1:30 p.m. Monday.
Crews have since brought a new generator on site, along with a backup to prevent future outages, Vigil said.
Testing at Ruby Hill Park, located at 1200 W. Florida Ave., will resume on Tuesday. Because of a forecasted snowstorm, the testing site -- and those at the Green Valley Ranch Pool and Denver Human Services -- will open at noon.
Normal hours for the Ruby Hill testing site are from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays and 8 a.m. to noon on weekends.
"Ruby Hill Park joins three other sites designed to bring testing to communities with high positivity rates and to support those who don’t have insurance or are underinsured," DDPHE said in a news release.
After the larger Pepsi Center testing site closed at the end of September, the city opened community-based testing sites at Paco Sanchez Park and Green Valley Ranch Pool. The city added a third site Nov. 3 at Denver Human Services at 3815 Steele St.
Denver city officials announced Saturday that the Paco Sanchez Park testing site will temporarily close from Nov. 23 to Nov. 29 to accommodate a shifting of resources to the Ruby Hill Park testing location.
The Green Valley Ranch Pool and Denver Human Services sites will continue regular operations.
Health officials hope the new Ruby Hill location will help relieve traffic congestion and long wait times caused by increased demand for COVID-19 testing in recent weeks.
All sites will close on Nov. 26 and Nov. 27 for Thanksgiving and a citywide furlough day. More information on testing in Denver can be found here.
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