FALL RIVER — Free COVID-19 testing in Fall River is not going away.
That’s according to Mayor Paul Coogan, who said Thursday that the city will continue to be included in the statewide Stop the Spread initiative that began last July.
The mayor said he’d been informed by his health department director Tess Curran that a “professional company” will assume the responsibility of collecting test samples after Jan. 15.
That date marks the contractual expiration of a months-long agreement between the state and Seven Hills Foundation and Stanley Street Treatment and Resources, or SSTAR.
Both nonprofit businesses have been offering free testing, sometimes at various sites, that haven’t required prior appointments.