Editor's note: This story is part of Southwest Michigan Second Wave's On the Ground Battle Creek series and our ongoing COVID-19 coverage. If you have a story of how the community is responding to the pandemic please let us know here.

Any individual 18-years-old and older who wants to be tested for  COVID-19 will have that opportunity from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday in Kellogg Community Colleges’s North Parking lot.  A physician’s order is not required to have the test administered.

Calhoun County and Battle Creek city officials are hoping that the testing event this weekend will be every bit as successful as a similar mass testing that happened last weekend in Albion.

About 694 people were tested at Albion’s Opportunity High School. Eric Pessell, Calhoun County Health Officer, says Albion was selected because there has been a lack of COVID-19 testing there. He gave a shoutout to members of the Albion City Council who helped out during the event.

The two-day testing in Albion was “a major accomplishment with a lot of great help from Albion,” Pessell says. “We’ve done other events before and we sometimes struggle to get 200 people.”

He says he hopes the testing event, which will take place in KCC’s North Parking lot, will go just as well.

During a regularly scheduled Joint Operations Center call on Wednesday, Battle Creek City Manager Rebecca Fleury said that any individual 18-years-old and older who wants to be tested for the virus will have that opportunity from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.  She says a physician’s order or identification is not required to have the test administered.

“We envision four lanes for traffic and one lane for walk-up testing,” Fleury says.

All participants are asked to wear a face-covering and maintain social distancing while awaiting their test.

Testing is done by collecting some mucus from the nose or throat. It is collected with a cotton swab and what is collected will be sent to a laboratory where it will be examined for the virus. It will take a few days to get a report on whether the sample has tested positive for the virus (meaning you are sick with COVID-19) or negative (meaning at that time you were not sick with COVID-19).

Calhoun County officials say they plan to get everyone in and out with minimal wait times. The testing is a collaborative effort that includes the Calhoun County Health Department, the County Emergency Response Team; the City of Battle Creek, and the Michigan National Guard.

Those who come in for testing should enter through RooseveltAvenue. Fare-free bus service will be available on Saturday only via Battle Creek Transit bus -- the 2E Emmett-East Avenue route stops at KCC every half-hour, from 9:20 a.m. to 4:50 p.m. Buses do not run on Sunday and those with questions should contact Battle Creek Transit at (269) 966-3474.