With Covid-19 hospitalizations down “dramatically,” Huntsville Hospital says it will close its Fever & Flu Clinic Friday after testing more than 57,000 people there for the virus.

The clinic opened at 120 Governor’s Drive in March 2020 as a temporary Covid testing site. During the pandemic, at times lines wrapped around the building.

As scientists learned more about the virus and drug companies released new therapies, the clinic also became a treatment center. In recent months, the hospital said more than 4,200 Covid patients at high risk for hospitalization have come to the clinic for infusions or the antiviral pill Paxlovid.

“The Fever & Flu Clinic staff are true heroes,” said Huntsville Hospital President and Chief Operating Officer Tracy Doughty.

“When the virus first reached Alabama, they volunteered to put themselves in harm’s way to help keep the community safe,” Doughty said. “We are forever grateful for their service and excited that they can now return to caring for Huntsville Hospital Health System patients in other ways.”

Doughty said the community has many other testing, vaccination and outpatient treatment options and urged anyone needing those services to contact their primary car physician.

All Fever & Flu Clinic staff will be transferred to other jobs in the Huntsville Hospital Health System, the hospital said.