Need a COVID test in Fresno? Where you can go, amid growing demand for at-home kits
While at-home COVID-19 test kits are few and far between, there is an abundance of sites available throughout Fresno County where people can go to have a more conventional PCR test to detect whether they have a coronavirus infection.
The PCR tests – which are sent off to laboratories for analysis with results in two to three days – lack the convenience and speed of the at-home kits. But they are generally considered far more reliable than the rapid kits that return results in about 15 minutes, and the PCR tests give fewer false-positive or false-negative results.
In mid-December, only about 23% of the available capacity of seven state-supported OptumServe testing sites in Fresno County was being used by residents. In the week before Christmas, that jumped to 33%, said Joe Prado, assistant director of the Fresno County Department of Public Health.
Over the past week, overall demand for testing was up 30 percentage points, climbing to 63% utilization of the sites in Fresno, Sanger, Reedley, Mendota, Selma and Coalinga, Prado told The Fresno Bee on Monday.
That’s in addition to a large number of other places where people can get tested, including UCSF-Fresno’s COVID-19 Equity Project on Shaw Avenue north of the Fresno Fashion Fair shopping center in northeast Fresno; testing seven days a week at Curative’s test site in the Arbor Fair Shopping enter on West Shaw Avenue in northwest Fresno, either by appointment or walk-up; many of the major retail pharmacy chains; dozens of urgent-care and family health clinics across the county; and special mobile testing events.
Fresno County’s health department has a list of testing sites and times on its website at www.fcdph.org/covid19testing. People without internet access can call the county’s COVID-19 information line at 888-559-2683 for help finding a testing site.
Stores still in short supply of kits
At-home COVID-19 rapid-test kits remain out of stock at many retail pharmacies across the Fresno area this week as demand remains high because of the continuing spread of the omicron variant of the virus.
The empty shelves are a picture that’s played out nationwide throughout the Christmas and New Year holiday season and the return of children to school after the winter break.
There’s no certainty when those kits may reappear on store shelves or be available to order online from stores like CVS, Rite Aid or Walgreens.
Store clerks at some stores in Fresno said the rapid tests – so named because they can return a result in about 15 minutes compared to conventional lab testing that can take two to three days – were on order from their suppliers.
Also awaiting shipments of tens of thousands of the at-home rapid-test kits are the Fresno County Department of Public Health and the Fresno County Office of Education. Prado told The Bee on Monday that he’s waiting to hear when state health officials expect to ship 84,000 kits that will be made available to vulnerable residents in ZIP codes with higher rates of infection and lower socioeconomic characteristics.
“We placed our order last week, and the state is still reviewing the order,” Prado said. “We don’t have a ship date yet.”
Prado said that as soon as they receive the kits, the county is ready to launch a website where eligible people will be able to request a test kit to be mailed to them. For people who don’t have internet access, they will also be able to call the agency’s COVID-19 information line at 888-559-2683 to request test kits.
Prado added that the Fresno County Office of Education is expecting to receive more than 160,000 rapid-test kits to be made available to families with school-age children for testing as the school year resumes this month.
Jim Yovino, Fresno County Superintendent of Schools, said parents can contact their school district for more information. “Students belong in the classroom in front of a caring adult,” Yovino said. “Let’s keep students in school. I encourage families to utilize the test kits available to them from their school district, as well as vaccinating their children when eligible.”
Even more at-home kits are due to be available, perhaps this month, as a result of the federal government’s efforts to alleviate the shortage. President Joe Biden announced last month that the government is ordering 500 million at-home test kits that are expected to be made available to Americans at no charge through a registration website.
Health officials advise that if a person has COVID-19 symptoms – including fever, cough, shortness of breath, loss of their sense of taste or smell, fatigue, muscle or body aches, sore throat, nausea or vomiting, or diarrhea – but tests negative on an at-home antigen test kit, they should follow up with a PCR test from their doctor, a county testing site or other testing clinic.
This story was originally published January 4, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
