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SAN JOSE – Santa Clara County opened a large-scale coronavirus testing site on Tuesday where officials hope to test thousands of residents daily and ultimately offer flu and COVID-19 vaccinations.
The new location will provide drive-thru, walk and bike-friendly testing to up to 1,000 people at the County Fairgrounds in South San Jose, with the capacity to expand to approximately 5,000 tests per day – surpassing all other local public testing sites and accounting for a significant portion of testing across the county.
“We started here as a real starting point for COVID in the United States, and six months later we are still fighting,” Health official Dr Sara Cody said at a press conference . “The reason we’re still fighting is that we didn’t have the tools to get out. One of the most important tools is testing: test, test, test. “
For months, the county pushed to create more testing centers as it lagged behind neighbors, first with state partnerships with Verily and OptumServe, then with over 50 rotating pop-up sites. . In June, the county also demanded that private health care systems provide testing for certain groups of people, arguing that some private providers had not stepped up their efforts.
Santa Clara’s public health system – namely Valley Medical Center – accounts for about 40% of daily tests, said Dr Marty Fenstersheib, the county’s test manager. With that in mind, the new site will target people who are symptomatic or essential workers who cannot get tested with their own provider – although anyone can sign up for a test.
“We want people to come here… we want you to get tested at least once a month,” Fenstersheib said of frontline workers.
Occupying a separate part of the Exhibition Center from the Verily Exhibition Center site, the site has 10 lanes of traffic allowing patients to queue. Most of the lanes are intended for vehicles, but pedestrian and cycle lanes will also be provided.
The county is teaming up with a Southern California lab that has promised turnaround times of around three days, Fenstersheib said, compared to days or weeks at other sites that rely on overworked commercial labs . Approximately 15 Valley Medical staff will operate the center.
Starting this fall, the county plans to use the site to provide flu shots in addition to testing. This will then be expanded to also include “the dream of a COVID vaccine,” Cody said.
Appointments are available Tuesday through Saturday and can be made online.
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