Fresno County gets a third high-volume coronavirus test site. Here’s where you can be checked
Over the past couple of months, the state of California has opened two high-volume coronavirus testing sites in Fresno County, each capable of collecting nasal swabs from more than 130 people a day to monitor the spread of COVID-19 in the community.
A third testing center will open in west Fresno, providing another option for people in an area described as largely underserved with medical resources compared with other parts of the county.
OptumServe, a contractor with the state, will operate the test site in the West Fresno Regional Center at 142 E. California Ave., about a block west of Edison High School. The site could be conducting tests as soon as Monday, said Dr. Rais Vohra, Fresno County’s interim health officer.
Since early March, when the first confirmed case of coronavirus was reported in Fresno County, more than 50,000 people have been tested as of Friday, Vohra said. Of those, 4,374 have been infected with the virus. That’s a rate of about 8.7% — a source of concern for local health officials compared with a statewide positivity rate of 5.3%.
Buddy Mendes, chairman of the Fresno County Board of Supervisors, said the additional testing capacity provided by the center is something the county has needed.
“This is the third site we’re working on with the state of California, and they’ve been a pretty good partner on these testing sites,” Mendes said Friday. “I think we would have liked to have this one a little sooner, but we’re glad we got it and we’re not going to do any more bellyaching about it.”
OptumServe already operates testing sites at Fresno City College in central Fresno and the Sanger Community Center in Sanger.
Mendes added that the new site will not only serve southwest Fresno residents, but also provide a closer option for rural residents in southwestern Fresno County towns like Easton and Caruthers.
People can register online for an appointment at any of the OptumServe sites at lhi.care/covidtesting or by calling 888-634-1123. An appointment is necessary to get tested. The tests are available at no cost to the individual.
A list of other places where testing is available in Fresno County is on the Fresno County Public Health website.
Additional testing affords health officials a more accurate picture of how the virus is spreading in the community. While initial testing in Fresno County — and most of California — focused on people with such coronavirus disease symptoms as fever, breathing problems or coughing, or on first responders and medical professionals treating patients, sites like those run by OptumServe allow for more “surveillance” testing of people who aren’t showing any symptoms but could still be infected with the virus and be capable of spreading it to other people.
Vohra said the new testing site also provides a place where more people can go to be re-tested to be cleared to return to work if they’ve tested positive earlier.
“It spares our (hospital) emergency departments (and) decompresses our primary care clinics because these (OptumServe) sites are doing nothing but testing, often for asymptomatic individuals,” Vohra said. “So this really is a great advance for us to have this resource available, especially for a relatively underserved area such as west Fresno.”
This story was originally published June 26, 2020 at 3:17 PM.
