Yolo County gets new coronavirus testing sites from state program available to anyone
Yolo County residents will have coronavirus testing sites starting next week with the ability to serve more than 100 people a day as part of state effort to help underserved community during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The COVID-19 tests will be available to anyone in the community, including agricultural workers, homeless people and undocumented workers, according to a news release from Yolo County.
The testing will be done Tuesdays through Saturdays from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.; in Woodland from Tuesday through May 30 and in West Sacramento from June 2 through June 20. Those two cities have had the most confirmed COVID-19 cases in the county.
Testing will only be available by appointment, which can be made by calling 888-634-1123 or completing an online application. The address of the testing site will be provided upon completion of the application.
State officials determined where these new testing sites would be located by looking at rural and urban areas where Californians would have to travel 30 to 60 minutes to reach an existing testing site or hospital. That information was then evaluated to address known disparities and median income, so residents have access to testing regardless of socioeconomic status, officials said.
As of Friday afternoon, Yolo County had 169 COVID-19 cases and 16 deaths from the respiratory disease. Woodland had 82 reported cases, and West Sacramento had 57.
Placer County also is opening two coronavirus testing sites as part of the state testing program; one site will be in South Placer’s Roseville, and the other in Kings Beach in the Lake Tahoe region. A third site in Nevada County’s Grass Valley will also be able to serve nearby Placer County residents.
Neighboring El Dorado County will also have two testing sites operational next week, as part of the statewide plan. Sacramento County has been operating a drive-through test site at Cal Expo in partnership with Verily since the end of March. More than 1,400 COVID-19 cases have been reported in the four-county Sacramento region.
The new testing sites in Yolo County are among more than 80 community COVID-19 testing sites recently added by Gov. Gavin Newsom throughout the state to focus on underserved communities, according to the news release.
To determine where these new testing sites were located, the state looked at both rural and urban areas where Californians would have to travel between 30 and 60 minutes to reach an existing testing site or hospital.
County officials said the service providing the testing, OptumServe, will be able to test up to 135 people a day with test results available within 48 to 72 hours. Officials emphasized that this is not antibody testing; this is to test if people have COVID-19.
