Around 200 people queued for up to nine hours to receive a free Covid-19 tests in the city of São Paulo. PCR tests, the most trustworthy in detecting the presence of the coronavirus, were scheduled to be administered at a mall in the south region of São Paulo, starting at 9 am on Tuesday.
Yet, with gates opening at 5:30 am, most residents decided to drive early to the testing site, with the first citizens arriving around midnight and spending the night waiting in line. Roughly 200 tests were administered by the Butantan Institute for biological research – one of the country’s leading institutions in Covid-19 research.
Those who arrived shortly after 9 am were turned away due to the high demand. The free testing initiative began last week, with 200 tests administered every day since. As of August 5, the testing capacity will be doubled to 400 per day until August 10, when the campaign will end.
Drive-in testing initiatives have been increasingly common among Brazilian cities. On June 16, the northeastern city of Natal held a similar mass testing campaign, as reported by The Brazilian Report.
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