The City of Escalon and the Escalon Unified School District are joining forces to give students, staff, parents and community members another COVID testing option.

According to information from the school district, Heal360 will be available to perform rapid and PCR testing at no cost, with the service being effective as of Monday Jan. 31. They will be testing at the Escalon Community Center at 1055 Escalon Ave., on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from noon to 5 p.m. They will service walk-in visits with pre-registration; however, they request that walk-ins arrive no later than 15 to 20 minutes to the closing time. The registration link for students and school district staff members is: https://inspirediagnostics.com/escalon-unified-school-district/.

The registration link for parents and community members is https://www.inspiretesting.com/pre/HEAL360.

You must register prior to your first visit but then you will not have to register again for future testing.

The new three days a week testing option is in addition to an existing testing site operating on the Escalon High School campus. There, the school district, in cooperation with the San Joaquin County Health Department and Fulgent Genetics, is hosting a free COVID-19 testing site at the Escalon High School Performing Arts Center. That site is open Monday through Friday, holidays excluded, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; enter on the Yosemite Avenue side. They will take drop-ins or you can make an appointment at https://sjc.fulgentgenetics.com/appointment. The site is open to all area residents; it is not limited to the school district, as anyone in the region is eligible to come in for the COVID-19 testing.