District 2 Public Health announces Changes and Updates for Testing

District 2 Public Health announces updates to schedules, testing criteria and specimen collection sites. Previous testing criteria was to test individuals with fever, cough and shortness of breath. Due to new testing criteria from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), we can now test anyone with these additional symptoms: chills, shaking with chills, muscle pain, headache, sore throat, and loss of taste or smell.  District 2 has also expanded the hours of the call center. The new call center hours are: 8:30am to 7pm, every day including Saturday and Sunday. All county health departments will continue to schedule appointments during normal business hours, 8am to 5pm, Monday through Friday.  The Specimen Point of Collection (SPOC) in Hall County will now operate as follows.  Monday through Friday, 8:30am to 5pm. On Saturday from 9am to 5pm, and on Sunday from 9am to 12pm.  In addition, a Specimen Point of Collection will be opened in Franklin County. This site will operate on Tuesday and Friday of each week, beginning on May 5. This location will better serve residents in Franklin and Hart. Residents can contact the call center above, call Franklin County Health Department at 706-384-5575, or call Hart County Health Department at 706-376-5117 to schedule testing.  The Specimen Point of Collection Site in Towns County will continue to operate as scheduled. Residents can call Towns County Health Department at 706-896-2265, Union County Health Department at 706-745-6292 or Rabun County Health Department at 706-212-0289 to get an appointment for testing.  An appointment is needed at each of the Specimen Points of Collection. Please call the call center 770-531-5600 or your local health department to schedule an appointment for testing.