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Home » Contra Costa County Health Services To Get Additional Equipment To Process COVID-19 Tests

Contra Costa County Health Services To Get Additional Equipment To Process COVID-19 Tests

by CLAYCORD.com
12 comments

Contra Costa Health Services is beefing up its lab capacity, and opening up two new COVID-19 testing centers this week in West County, health officials said.

This comes as the community spread of the coronavirus continues, especially in Contra Costa County’s communities of color, according to Dr. Erika Jenssen of Contra Costa Health Services.

Both Jenssen and Dr. Chris Farnitano, Contra Costa’s health officer, spoke Tuesday morning to the county Board of Supervisors as part of Health Services’ regular COVID-19 update to the board.

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Farnitano said high testing volumes have resulted in delays in getting test results out to the public, in some cases as long as three weeks.

That, he said, limits the very usefulness of those tests.

Farnitano said that, to add to the county’s testing capability, the county’s own two lab facilities — one of them at the Contra Costa Regional Medical Center hospital in Martinez — will get additional equipment to allow processing hundreds of test samples a day with a one- to two-day turnaround time.

That added capacity, Farnitano told the supervisors, is primarily for “highest-risk populations” including seniors and front-line emergency workers.

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Contra Costa County is also looking to other labs, including state-run facilities in Richmond and Hayward, for help with processing test samples.

Jenssen told the supervisors that, as of Tuesday morning, there had been 146 COVID-19-related deaths in Contra Costa County, including seven newly reported on Tuesday. Sixty-five percent of those deaths, she said, have
been among senior residents of long-term care facilities.

There have been 9,787 confirmed cases in the county, according to the Contra Costa Health Services’ website dashboard.

Jenssen told the supervisors the hospitalization rate has stabilized recently, with the number on Tuesday at 104.

Two new testing centers — one at the county’s North Richmond Center for Health and at the Richmond Civic Center — should be up and running this week, Jenssen said.

12 comments


Antonius August 11, 2020 - 6:19 PM - 6:19 PM

It took 11 days to get the results for my wife’s test which were negative. Glad we weren’t in a hurry.

Original G August 11, 2020 - 6:21 PM - 6:21 PM

“… in some cases as long as three weeks.”

How long have they been aware of the backlog, what date ?

Think about this for a minute, how many persons do you interact with in a period of three weeks ?

An how many magnitudes more difficult, is it to contact trace possible exposures ?

Lizzee August 11, 2020 - 7:22 PM - 7:22 PM

It’s probably been at least a month or two. I’ve been reading anecdotes about long processing delays since June in other counties. California and several other states are using the same contactor to process the tests– LHI and Quest Labs, I think.

When I signed up for my test back in May, Illinois and a couple of other mid-sized states were mentioned on the website.

ConcordRez August 11, 2020 - 7:11 PM - 7:11 PM

“as of Tuesday morning, there had been 146 COVID-19-related deaths in Contra Costa County, including seven newly reported on Tuesday. Sixty-five percent of those deaths, she said, have been among senior residents of long-term care facilities.” I wish someone would tell me WHY we have so many COVID-19 deaths in CoCo County. Yes, adequate testing with quick results is important. But WHY do we have so many people coming down with this life-threatening virus?

Oh, please August 11, 2020 - 9:02 PM - 9:02 PM

Well, we don’t. That is not that many..

WC Resident August 11, 2020 - 9:25 PM - 9:25 PM

Far more people are dying from heart disease and cancer every day than COVID-19. COVID-19’s mortality rate in Contra Costa County is about 1.4 times that of the average mortality rate of the flu for the county.

COVID-19 is very contagious. That’s why there have been nearly 10,000 cases since March 1, 2020 in Contra Costa County even though we have been taking measures to slow down the spread.

Brandi August 12, 2020 - 7:53 AM - 7:53 AM

Here’s website that will show you exactly how many cases there are per county.

The other site shows population per county.

https://www.ksbw.com/article/covid-19-map-of-california-coronavirus-cases-by-county-august-11/33577991#

https://www.california-demographics.com/counties_by_population

Sally August 11, 2020 - 7:56 PM - 7:56 PM

It’s spreading thanks to the loophole that allows healthcare workers with Covid19 to continue working if they don’t have symptoms due to staffing shortages. That and the fact that the Contra Costa County doesn’t follow their own guidelines. Their HR haven’t bothered to put a protocol in place for Positive employees and how to handle quarantine employees. It’s ridiculous.

Lost Pride August 11, 2020 - 7:59 PM - 7:59 PM

I request from Lab Corp a COVID 19 test last Wednesday, the test arrived on Thursday and was Fed Ex’ed back the same day. I got the results back 1 1/2 days later. I did this for my son who is actually going to an open college. I’m writing this cause you can’t depend on the state government. They can’t do anything right. I use to check the state COVID 19 numbers but they have admitted the numbers are wrong. The 2 top Ca health officials resigned in the last 2 days.

Hayden Barsotti August 11, 2020 - 8:14 PM - 8:14 PM

I guess the lab workers al go home at 5 pm? Do these facilities work 24hrs?

ZZ August 11, 2020 - 9:45 PM - 9:45 PM

Yes, hurry, hurry beef it up! We have to keep the tall tale going!

RANDOM TASK August 12, 2020 - 9:45 AM - 9:45 AM

wait so newscum said no money
for benefits for citizens

but to keep the lie going
all of a sudden
there is cash to burn

and you so called believers
what are you watching ????

I look at every news feed and blog I can
and its obvious after sifting through the fake news and following the money

this is all a power play to enslave and place citizens in debt so they have to cling to dem social programs for the rest of their lives or move out

the game is how far can they push us …..
from the posts I can see the lemmings are following like their supposed to


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