Milwaukee health centers expand testing

Milwaukee community health centers are ramping up COVID-19 testing, health center leaders told reporters Monday.

All five health centers in the area – the Gerald L. Ignace Indian Health Center, Milwaukee Health Services, Outreach Community Health Centers, Progressive Community Health Centers and Sixteenth Street Community Health Centers – are involved in the initiative.

The five organizations should be able to collectively process 350 to 400 tests a day, according to Dr. Tito Izard, CEO of Milwaukee Health Services, Inc.

“We’re all independent financially from each other, but we have the same mission of ensuring that the whole community, regardless of your ability to pay, has access to timely and appropriate, high-quality healthcare,” he told reporters on a press call.

Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes said state agencies have been working with the community health centers over the past month to increase access to testing in hard-hit communities. He said the effort increases access to those without a primary care doctor.

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