SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—State officials have sponsored a community testing site for COVID-19 cases in the Watsonville area, Santa Cruz County Department of Public Health Director Mimi Hall said at Tuesday morning’s Santa Cruz County Supervisors meeting.
The hope, Hall said, is it will be operational as soon as next week so that the county can “better serve the Pajaro Valley.”
Watsonville City Manager Matt Huffaker confirmed the city is working with county and state officials to establish the site. He said Ramsay Park was identified as a potential site and county spokesman Jason Hoppin confirmed the park’s Family Center will serve as the location.
Hoppin said people will still need a doctor’s referral to receive a test at the site. Appointments will be made online but the county is working to accommodate those without internet access.
The site is expected to conduct roughly 130 tests per day, Hoppin said.
Those without insurance will be tested free of charge.
The community testing site is one of 80 that will be established throughout California thanks to a deal between state officials and OptumServe. Gov. Gavin Newsom said those testing sites will be established in rural areas and in “underserved communities” where the residents have been “disproportionately affected by COVID-19.”
“Not only are we increasing the numbers of tests, I just want to make sure people understand, where we are testing is becoming more appropriate to the needs of 40 million Californians,” Newsom said. “We’re trying to meet people where they are, as opposed to demanding they meet where we are.”
Though testing will still be limited during the first few weeks after the site has been established, the hope is to expanding testing to asymptomatic members of the community, Hoppin said.
Hall at Tuesday’s meeting also introduced the county’s S.A.V.E. Lives Santa Cruz County initiative, a four-phase plan of how officials will slowly reopen the county.
Led by Margaret Lapiz of the Community Foundation Santa Cruz County (CFSCC), the plan is an acronym for the four phases: (1) Slow the spread, (2) Adapt to the new normal, (3) Vaccination and therapeutics and (4) Elevate public health readiness.
Lapiz will work with the county Health Services Agency with support from CFSCC to increase COVID-19 testing, contact tracing and quarantine/isolation services. These services, county officials said, are essential to reopening workplaces, community services and schools until a coronavirus vaccine is widely available.
CFSCC secured funding to help get the community recovery plan into action. The funding will help cover some of the costs related to re-opening the county, including Lapiz’s position, enhanced testing capabilities and contact tracing systems.
“Our work as a community foundation is to bring people, resources and ideas together to accelerate local solutions to our county’s most pressing problems and clearly, recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic will require our local leaders, small business owners, health care professionals, educators and the public to pull together like never before to support the county in their work to protect public health,” CFSCC CEO Susan True said in a press release.
