OKEECHOBEE — Free walk up testing for COVID-19 will be available at the Florida Department of Health, 1728 N.W. Ninth Ave., in Okeechobee on Tuesday, Aug. 11, from 5:30 to 7 p.m.

No insurance is required. The testing is open to the public, regardless of symptoms. Children can be tested with parental consent but must be able to complete the test without restraint. Parking and walk-up testing will be in the back of the health department building. Each individual will be asked to provide their name, date of birth, cellphone number and current living address.

The test is a nasopharyngeal swab. A soft swab will be inserted into your nose to get the necessary sample. This may be uncomfortable; however the test is quick, and should take less than one minute. The lab will text the results to the cellphone number you provide. The Department of Health will contact you if your result is positive for contact investigation purposes.

There will be no restrooms available at the site. Participants are asked to wear face coverings and maintain at least 6 feet of space from others. For more information, call the health department at 863-462-5800 and press 3.

Okeechobee County commissioners renewed the declaration of emergency due to COVID-19 for another seven days at their Aug. 6 meeting.

Okeechobee County Public Safety Director Ralph Franklin said there is a free food bank visit scheduled for the Okeechobee Agri-Civic Center on Aug. 14 from 8:30 to 11 a.m. He said three Fire/Rescue employees have tested positive after COVID-19 testing. Two have since tested negative and have been cleared to return to work.

Mitch Smeykal of the Okeechobee Emergency Operations Center said the trend for emergency room visits for COVID-like symptoms is going down. That is a positive trend, he said.

He said reading through the available data on the spreadsheets, most of the people who died had “co-morbidity” factors such as diabetes and asthma.

He said they have received 19,000 cloth masks, which will be reserved for the schools. He said all of the masks supplied are the adult size.