Allegheny County health officials introduced two new initiatives to help manage covid-19 as schools reopen and fall approaches.

The county will open a new covid-19 testing site in McKeesport on Sept. 15. Free testing will be provided, with no need for insurance.

Health Director Debra Bogen said county officials chose the location after hearing from area residents. Many in the Mon Valley did not feel they had adequate access to testing, Bogen said.

“This test site really comes at the right time for our county,” Bogen said. “The McKeesport test site fills a gap in testing for our community, including testing of children as young as three years old.”

County Executive Rich Fitzgerald said the new site was a collaboration among several state and local agencies, including the state Department of Health, the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, the Pennsylvania National Guard and many others. Testing will be free thanks to funding from the CARES Act allocated to the county from the state, Fitzgerald said.

Starting next Tuesday, the site, at 455 Industry Road, will be open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. It is a drive-thru site, utilizing self-administered tests by appointment only. Bogen said instructions for how to make an appointment will be available later this week. Visitors do not have to be Allegheny County residents to utilize the testing services, but must meet certain criteria — such as having contact with someone with covid-19, working at a long-term care facilty or other risk factors.

Bogen also announced an expansion of the 211 service line to include on-call nurses. Callers can now ask questions and address covid-19 concerns relating to children and the shift back to school. The service will be provided through a partnership between the health department, the United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania, the Pittsburgh Poison Center and UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh’s Nurse Triage Line.

“For more than a decade, 2-1-1 has been a critical resource for our community. The pandemic helped to shine a light on its long time role of connecting people who need help with resources,” said Bobbi Watt Geer, president and CEO of United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania.

UPMC Nurses will be available to field questions from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. during the week. They will be able to provide guidance to pediatricians fielding calls from families, answer questions about safety protocols for school administrators and respond to concerns from parents.

“At UPMC Children’s, our top priority is to provide the highest quality of care and support to patients and families,” Brian S. Martin, vice president of Medical Affairs at UPMC Children’s, said in a statement. “We will continue to provide our pediatric expertise to school nurses and administrators and ensure support for families in following up with their primary care providers/medical home.”

Bogen said the service also comes at a critical time as children and college students return to the classroom.

“Getting children back to school safely has been one of our top priorities over the couple of months, and providing consistent and up to date information is a key part of that,” Bogen said.

In the last week, the county officials reported a slight increase in the percentage of positive tests in the county, with Wednesday reaching 7%.

“It’s probably something that we expected as the 85,000 college students head back to class, along with school activities, sports, extracurricular activities at the school district level,” Fitzgerald said.

But while rising cases among individuals aged 19-24 reflect more infections among college students, overall, the county hasn’t yet seen a spike associated with the reopening of schools. It’s likely too early for that, Bogen said, as it usually takes about three weeks for case numbers to reflect a major change, and schools have only started reopening in the last week or so.

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