Area residents lined up Monday morning at the Wildwood Community Center for COVID-19 testing.

The booked-up testing opportunity was offered through the Sumter County Health Department.

Cars line up for testing Monday at the Wildwood Community Center.

There were 445 people registered for Monday’s round of testing at the Wildwood Community Center. Another 390 are registered for another day of testing on Wednesday at the same location. All of the slots had been claimed by area residents days ahead of the event.

Sumter County Health Department staffers were organizing the testing in sweltering heat at the Wildwood Community Center.

The health department’s COVID-19 testing on June 28 through July 2 at New Covenant United Methodist Church in The Villages drew 1,038 area residents. There were 16 positive cases detected during the testing at New Covenant.

The Sumter County Health Department is adding eight more contact tracers and three more epidemiologists. They will join seven full-time contact tracers and three epidemiologists already working to stem the tide of Coronavirus in the county.   

Twenty-three health department employees were working the test site on Monday.

More testing will be announced for August.