By Bobby Tanzilo Senior Editor/Writer Published Apr 28, 2020 at 10:02 AM

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Milwaukee officials announced Monday that five Community Health Centers in the city have boosted their testing capacity and can now offer diagnostic COVID-19 testing to symptomatic community members who have no regular doctor.

According to Milwaukee Ald. Chantia Lewis, the the expansion of testing is funded by the state and county Emergency Operations Centers and community partners, including local health systems.

Individuals seeking information on testing should call 211.

These Community Health Centers are doing testing. You must call before going as appointments are required to ensure safety of patients and providers:

• Gerald L. Ignace Indian Health Center, (414) 383-9526, gliihc.net
• Milwaukee Health Services, Inc., (414) 372-8080, mhsi.org
• Outreach Community Health Centers, (414) 727-6320, ochc-milw.org
• Progressive Community Health Centers, (414) 882-2040, progressivechc.org
• Sixteenth Street Community Health Centers, (414) 672-1353, sschc.org

"The Community Health Centers are truly on the front-lines in our efforts to keep the public healthy and informed about COVID-19 and the best ways to prevent the spread of the deadly virus," said Lewis, whose 9th District on the northwest side has been hard-hit by COVID-19.

"The coronavirus is no joke, no hoax, and I want community members to seek out and sign up for testing, to take all necessary precautions and to please stay safe at home until the ‘Safer at Home’ order can be lifted."

Bobby Tanzilo Senior Editor/Writer

Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.

He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.

With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.

He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.

In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.

He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.