Residents get tested for COVID-19 in San Mateo County.
Activity at the San Mateo County Event Center COVID-19 testing center is so low that officials shut it down at 11:30 a.m. Friday, established a van to bring people there and are even trying to reduce the criteria currently required to get a test.
The Event Center testing site has the capacity to test 250 people a day and has been getting a fraction of that with County Manager Mike Callagy even reporting about 50 tests on one day this week.
“Not that many people are getting tested. It could be that the criteria may be too high,” he said.
Right now, to get a free test at the Event Center, you must exhibit two symptoms like a cough, scratchy throat or a headache to be tested. Callagy suggested that could be reduced to one symptom, with a belief of possible exposure. He also suggested that the list of those eligible for testing currently limited to typical first responders be expanded to include other frontline workers like grocery clerks and pharmacy workers. And it might be a matter of rotating testing through the grocery stores, he added.
As of Friday, the county is reporting 638 positive cases, up from 633 on Thursday, with still 21 deaths. New data listed on the county’s website shows a 10% positivity rate to tests, with 5,919 tests and about 2.2 days for results. There are still 93 pending results. Officials have yet to release exact numbers of people who have tested positive and recovered, but Callagy said the recovery rate is high as the death rate is relatively low.
There are currently 86 people hospitalized with the coronavirus in the county and 27 of them are in the intensive care units. And there are sufficient ventilators and beds available, Callagy said, adding that some of the emergency beds established at the Event Center have been moved elsewhere.
Modeling that health officials are using indicates that while the surge of cases was expected by Monday, April 13, the shelter-in-place effort has reduced that.
“We’ve flattened that surge, but we’ve prolonged it,” Callagy said, adding that officials will know more Monday.
While testing requests and case counts are low, Callagy warned of losing diligence and said he worries about this weekend as it’s a holiday and it’s expected to be nice. He continued to maintain that residents should comply with the stay-at-home orders until there is a direction on how to remove them.
Callagy also said they are asking health officials to look at releasing information by city again and that a million N95 masks are expected next week.
Go to smcgov.org for more information on coronavirus or call 211.
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(5) comments
Thank you Mike Callagy for your leadership through this difficult time. You and the cooperative energy displayed by our local governments and service providers has shown positive results. We are fortunate to be living here with such thoughtful leadership!
Sounds like the capacity of the program is much higher than expected with the current criteria...then open it to EVERYONE...until a capacity is reached...then readdress the criteria again
We need to know how many are infected or are asymptomatic...but...we also need to know who isn't infected...that would fill in the demographics
As without knowing who isn't infected, we will continue to wonder in the morass of half the data...
I walked by there last week in the middle of the day, and there was only one car. I walked by today, and there was only a security guard behind a locked gate. I tried to get an appointment two days ago through verily.com. The website reports that there are no more tests available.
Is the CDC withholding test kits again in order to make the positive numbers look lower?
Thank you! Really looking forward to the expanded reach of testing.
Yes please expand the testing! At the beginning of all this I tried to get an appointment because there was a possibility I had been exposed and I had a dry cough and other mild symptoms but I didn’t qualify. I’m fine but I wonder if I had a mild case of it. If that wasn’t it, I wonder if my husband who is an essential worker will be bringing it home. Please expand the testing perhaps start with essential workers (EVERYONE who has to go to work now).
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