The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment will close its 20 remaining COVID-19 testing sites on Jan. 15. 

As more Coloradans have relied on at-home COVID-19 tests in the past several months, the demand for testing at the state’s community sites has dropped to between 3 to 6% of overall capacity, according to a CDPHE release.

The State released Colorado’s Next Chapter: Our Roadmap to Moving Forward in February of 2022, a roadmap outlining how the state’s testing will move into traditional health care settings. The new transition further operationalizes the testing plans outlined in this roadmap, according to the release.

Colorado provides free at-home tests at more than 200 distribution centers. Coloradans can also order free tests delivered to their homes through the federal at-home testing program. 

Insurance companies and health plans are also required to cover eight over-the-counter at-home tests per covered person per month. 

Pharmacies participating in the Increasing Community Access to Testing program offer testing at low or no cost to those without insurance. The locations take insurance but offer free tests to uninsured people who are symptomatic or were exposed.

Most pharmacies only offer testing to patients aged 3 or older, according to the release. Parents and guardians of very young children should talk to their child’s health care provider about testing.

Health department officials said they will continue to monitor testing needs, disease transmission and hospital capacity and is working with local public health agencies to support them if they need to run ongoing community testing sites.  

“Coloradans have transitioned away from relying on large community testing sites and toward testing at home with widely available at-home rapid tests, health care providers, or local retail pharmacies,” CDPHE COVID-19 Incident Commander Scott Bookman said in the release. “With this transition, the State is focusing efforts on the testing distribution methods Coloradans currently use most and providing testing resources to those who need them most.”