CONTRA COSTA COUNTY, Calif. (KRON) — Drive-thru testing sites for COVID-19 are now open in Contra Costa County for the foreseeable future.
Right now, county health services says the free tests are only symptomatic people. But the plan is to eventually expand the program and include those not showing signs of the virus.
By adding four drive-thru COVID-19 testing sites up to the public, Contra Costa County has potentially doubled the number of people it can test for novel coronavirus each day.
“This gives us the opportunity to do 50 to 100 tests a day at each of those sites,” Supervisor Candance Andersen said. “So that’s 400 more tests than we had two days ago.”
Chair of the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors, Candance Andersen, says increasing the number of tests will help prevent health care systems from becoming overwhelmed with patients.
That and identifying who is sick and who they may have exposed to the virus are two vital indicators local leaders are paying close attention to before they consider lifting the shelter-in-place.
”We’re finding with testing, we’re only seeing about seven percent positive cases of all the testing we’ve been doing in the county on percentage basis,” Andersen said. “But again, lots of people walking around asymptomatic they don’t know that they’re ill.”
For now, the drive-thru testing is available only to those of us showing symptoms: a fever, cough, fatigue and shortness of breath.
“We need to know what’s out there,” Andersen said.
The test is available to anyone — regardless of your insurance status.
It’s also free.
Just make sure you book an appointment first. Call ahead of time so that you can be screened over the phone and then show up.
The test sites are located at:
- Contra Costa Public Health Clinic Services on Bates Avenue in Concord
- Martinez Health Center on Alhambra Avenue
- Pittsburg Health Center on Loveridge Road
- West County Health Center on San Pablo Avenue in San Pablo.
You can expect test results within three to five days.
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