Contra Costa Health Services announced Thursday that it will begin offering COVID-19 coronavirus testing to all county residents, regardless of ability to pay or symptoms of the virus.
Contra Costa County had previously been testing only people who exhibited symptoms of the coronavirus, which include a cough, a fever, shortness of breath and a loss of taste or smell.
County health care workers are now testing an average of 300 to 400 people per day, but Contra Costa Health Services intends to raise that number five-fold.
“We need to test many more county residents to get a better sense of how widespread COVID-19 is in our community, and to help prevent its spread,” county Board of Supervisors Chair Candace Andersen said. “Testing will also give us a better idea of when we can relax the current health orders.”
The county offers testing at five drive-thru sites in Antioch, Concord, Martinez, Pittsburg, San Pablo and San Ramon while the state is operating three walk-up testing sites in Brentwood, Pinole and Walnut Creek.
Testing at all eight sites is by appointment only, according to the county. Residents must call (844) 421-0804 between 8 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. to make an appointment.
Residents do not need insurance to get tested and will not be charged an up-front cost for the test. People who have health insurance will have their insurance billed for the test.
Does this include the antibodies testing?
I got antibody tested last Friday (still waiting for results) with a doctor’s requisition. Allegedly covered by insurance. Quest will sell you a test without doctor’s requisition, also.
There are so many reports the results have a high frequency of false readings, I would take results with a grain of salt.
Here is actually a good article explaining the many unknowns of antibody testing
https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/7/21248734/coronavirus-antibody-tests-explained-covid-19-immunity-accurate
@JWB et anon,
To me, a positive result would mean that my immune system likely experienced this Coronavirus and responded to it. I realize there is no assurance that I am immune. I have put off donating blood (which I routinely do) because of concern about the virus. If my test result is positive then I plan to resume donation. It won’t affect my other behavior much, however.
…”“We need to test many more county residents to get a better sense of how widespread COVID-19 is in our community, and to help prevent its spread,” county Board of Supervisors Chair Candace Andersen said”
‘county residents’? That better include illegals or it’s time to vote the racist Candace Andersen out of office!
Serious question. What is the fascination with testing? I understand we need to have a working test available for drs to issue if you are ill so they know what treatment to offer. I think we do have a sum what reliable test. But why would some believe we needed to test everything that moves?
People are scared out of their wits, and somehow have convinced themselves that things like testing will make them safe.
I agree with you. I don’t see what testing will do for anyone at this point. The disease has been spreading for like 6 months now.
You follow up with people who are positive, identify those they had close contact with while they were likely infective, and then let those people know, test them, rinse, repeat. You break enough of the chains of transmission and keep the spread from going exponential. If you can do it really effectively, you can make the virus start to die out in the population because each case infects on average less than one new person.
But besides that, if you have enough testing of, say grocery store workers, transit workers, health care workers, nursing home workers – you can prevent a lot of spread. All of this, plus wearing masks in close public spaces, is meant to keep it from spreading out of control. We should all be rooting for success here, imo, because otherwise we are going to lurch back and forth between shutdowns and short open periods when cases grow super rapidly.
I don’t think it’s out of fear or fascination as much as managing the spread of the virus. 60% of infected people are asymptomatic. The more testing we do, the more asymptomatic cases we catch and the more we slow the virus.
So is the goal to quarantine aysmptomatic people? Are you ready for the ramifications of attempting to lockup people who are not sick? Or attempting to forcefully remove people from their homes to quarantine? Here we are again just diving off that slope. Lawsuits will shut that down quick so we better come up with a better plan. Anyway CA is out of money so their little experiment won’t last long
@sam – I think you are making a significant logic leap. Nobody has been locked up or forcibly removed from their home. The idea is to notify people who have an active, contagious infection whether they feel sick or not. They can then stay home until the infection clears so they do not infect anybody else.
Minimizing infections is good for the local, state and national economy. Restaurants, movie theaters and theme parks will not operate at capacity until people feel safe. I hope we do everything we can to heal the economy.
No dan its not a “significant leap in logic”. It’s basic questions. That you don’t want to ask or answer. Although I commend your dedication, your tactics don’t work here.
@ sam – Do you have any evidence of anybody being locked up or forcibly removed from their home? If not, you are contributing to the fear mongering, not a solution to help the country get back on track. What is with all of the overarching statements and misinformation?
@Sam, news flash: right now nearly EVERYONE is virtually “locked up” even if they aren’t sick. We’re all seeing the ramifications of that every day. Economic ruin, kids’ educations damaged or destroyed, lives turned upside down
If we could instead target the stay-at-home order to those who are actually infectious, everybody’s liberty would be better off. The more successful this is, the more normality we can get back in the near term. This is a no-brainer in that respect: you can have long periods of total lockdown for almost all, or you can have short periods of “lockdown” for the small percentage who are infectious. (I get the privacy concerns with app- based tracing and so on: that should be strictly voluntary, imo. I’m talking about old-fashioned methods: interview positive cases, call their close contacts, ask them to monitor and report symptoms and/or get tested, etc.)
The tests should only be for front line workers, elderly and if you have systems.
Gamer Police…last word is symptoms….
@The Wizard – What’s special about the elderly? As the elderly are known to come down with the more serious cases of COVID-19 they tend to be far more careful about SIP than the general population. That makes them both less likely to catch COVID-19 and less likely to spread it to others should they catch it. That’s why I wondered why you think they should be tested as though they are front line workers.
In my mind the elderly would be the last group that needs to be screened unless they are living in an assisted living or nursing home facility. Residents and staff of the facilities should be tested twice a week. As it’s a high risk population, you don’t want COVID-19 spreading through undetected and then boom, you realize you have 100 or more cases on your hands.
it was originally only available for front line workers… then people with symptoms… now everyone.
Wait – President Trump told us many on March 7th that everyone who wanted a test could get a test – so why is this a story?
If you want a test, go get your test.
That’s what I’m talking about..oh wait
Some knuckle draggers can’t go 1 minute without thinking about Trump. Gonna be a long 5 years for some of you..
Rob, for the life of me, I can’t remember what President Trump said on March 7th, and I’m wondering how you remember and why. Will you please share?
Major health care providers have their own setups for doing tests.
Yes, but you still need a doctor’s referral. If I were working in a grocery store I would be happy about this news. More chance that an infected co-worker could get identified and kept out from work before infecting me and a bunch of other people.
Simon Bar Sinister says……….. ” I will have everybody’s DNA soon enough. Ha Ha Ha Ha.
So… Can someone tell me this. If I get the test and test negative does that mean I’m good. If you can get Chairman Zi’s Wuhan surprise at any time does that mean I should be tested everyday?
@Lions Pride – you are correct in that testing is of little to no benefit to you. You are more likely to get infected by going to a test site than continuing with your SIP routine. Some people who were recently ill with something that strongly suggested COVID-19 should technically be immune* and so I’d suggest they get tested to see if it really was COVID-19.
The offer of more widespread testing is of benefit to the health department which at present is sitting in the dark. They have a general idea of the infection rate based on what they know about the few people that have been tested to date. More widespread testing leads to better data for them.
*Immunity has not been confirmed. It’s also not known how long it lasts. With the first found of SARS immunity was found to lasts about two years. When you catch a coronavirus version of the common cold your immunity lasts about eight months. Eventually we’ll figure out if there is a SARS2 immunity and how long it lasts for most people.
I tried going through the links to the Verily website, clicked the permissions and checked the boxes, and got a range of testing sites from Napa to Bakersfield, but no Contra Costa sites. The closest site for testing offered was in Elmhurst district, in Oakland.
Called the (844) number and have been listening to the same cheery 3-note repetition of hold music for the past 35 minutes…
Mission Accomplished!
…we’re now on hold for 1 hour, 5 minutes…
According to the readout on my phone, it’s been 1 hour, 45 minutes…all on hold…
…now at 2 hours, 10 minutes, per my phone readout… still on hold with the same insipid 3-note guitar loop…have NOT spoken to a human yet…
@Claude Rains… Sounds like you are invisible to them or something.
…You see right through me…
…AAAND, we have now cracked the 3-hour-hold mark! Great Job!
My call was answered at the 3 hour, 32 minute mark. I spoke to a nice lady, medically trained, who asked some simple questions from a script. It took about 7-8 minutes, and now I’m waiting for a callback from an 800- number.
I couldn’t help but question her, and learned they had over 300 callers in queue, with only 20 operators to answer the calls. I gently suggested that they might want to hire more people with call center experience, since our call was basically asking for personal & insurance info, and she was agreeable to the notion. But, she wasn’t in charge…
Tests Suppose to be scheduled online. I know that sucks!!!
Good news, perhaps, the antibody test is now available in Contra Costa county. You can make an apt. Online. I set mine up thru Quest. Set my apt up today for Monday morning.