The Northern Light Mercy Hospital in Portland will reopen a drive-up coronavirus testing facility at the Fore River Parkway campus on Friday.
The move comes as the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported 734 new cases of COVID-19 since Saturday, and the demand for testing continues to increase.
The testing site, which will be a self-swab site, will start taking appointments on Thursday, according to Dave Guthro, the hospital’s communications director. The drive-up facility will be open seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
There are testing sites provided by Northern Light Mercy Hospital that are available in Gorham, Westbrook and Windham, which are open daily.
Over the last two weeks, the spread of the highly contagious delta variant has led to increased hospitalizations, and Maine reported the highest coronavirus case rates in New England ahead of Labor Day.