Starting this week, certain individuals who do not have COVID-19 symptoms will be able to get tested, thanks to new efforts to broaden access by San Mateo and Santa Clara counties and Stanford Health Care.
Santa Clara County has expanded its testing eligibility with an eye on reaching its goal of 4,000 tests per day by May 31. The program will focus on hotspots in parts of Mountain View, San Jose and southern parts of the county, Dr. Marty Fenstersheib, head of the county's new COVID-19 testing task force, said at the Board of Supervisors Health and Hospital Committee meeting on Thursday.
People who are first responders, health care workers, or who work at essential services such as grocery stores, restaurants, food services, utilities services, or other jobs requiring frequent contact with the public can receive the free tests even if they have no symptoms.
The tests are also available to individuals who are scheduled for surgery or a medical procedure and those who have any symptoms of COVID-19.
The tests are available by appointment at sccgov.org/cv19testing.
San Mateo County announced May 14 that it will begin providing free COVID-19 testing for anyone who wants to be tested, by appointment, starting Monday, May 18.
San Mateo County will also be expanding its testing services to two new sites operated by Verily, in addition to the current site at the San Mateo County Event Center. Each site will be open for testing two days each week between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.
On Fridays and Saturdays, tests will be offered at the Lewis and Joan Platt East Palo Alto Family YMCA at 556 Bell St. in East Palo Alto, the county's press release stated.
According to an announcement from the city of East Palo Alto, the testing is free and will be available to all, including undocumented residents. It will be administered to people who drive up or walk up, and language support will be available.
People can make an appointment through Verily's Project Baseline website here. Verily, formerly known as Google Life Sciences, is a subsidiary of Alphabet.
People who don't have a way to get to the testing sites can call 650-779-9375 for free transportation provided by the county.
Within San Mateo County, there needs to be about 1,200 tests per day administered in hospitals, private testing companies and the county's free program to meet state guidelines for reopening.
Essential worker testing
Stanford Health Care has opened testing for COVID-19 to symptomatic and asymptomatic first responders and essential workers, a medical center spokeswoman confirmed on Thursday. The testing covers employees of grocery stores, gas stations, restaurants or other businesses remaining open to provide services to the community.
Stanford started the swab tests on Wednesday. Testing will be available at the Galvez lot on the Stanford campus, but appointments are required. They can be made through a video visit on Stanford Health Care's My Health website or the MyHealth mobile app by selecting "appointments"; by registering here or by calling 650-498-9000.
The numbers of tests offered will be evaluated on a weekly basis and is based on availability of supplies. This week, Stanford Health Care is able to perform a total of 2,500 tests at its six outpatient sites, according to the organization.
For more information about testing opportunities in Santa Clara County, see the interactive map on the Public Health Department website.
Find comprehensive coverage of the Midpeninsula's response to the new coronavirus by Palo Alto Online, the Mountain View Voice and the Almanac here.
Comments
Midtown
on May 15, 2020 at 10:49 am
on May 15, 2020 at 10:49 am
I attended the Board of Supervisors Health and Hospital committee meeting on Thursday that was mentioned in this article. The meeting took place before Alameda and Contra Costa counties announced that they are moving to Phase 2 of reopening. Dr. Cody and her team insisted that testing is ramping up to meet the goal of 4,000 daily tests by end of May. But Joe Simitian asked some pointed questions about the need for this much testing as well as the likelihood of reaching the goal so quickly, given that it has taken a couple of months to reach ~1,300 daily tests as of today. I agree that we likely will not be able to meet this goal so soon.
It will be very difficult for SCC to continue to justify waiting on the move to Phase 2 as now all 5 other bay area counties have split from SCC and are going to Phase 2, and in reviewing the metrics SCC is doing better than all of them in nearly every metric. Interesting times, indeed.
Community Center
on May 15, 2020 at 11:35 am
on May 15, 2020 at 11:35 am
It seems like given how low our numbers are we could go to phase 2 and they could continue to ramp up testing in the meantime. We aren't going to miss many positives in the next couple of weeks given that we're testing about 1000/day and getting about 10 positive results in the whole county. Phase 2 is not that big of a change -- still no crowded restaurants etc., and they could also implement a county-wide mask requirement in conjunction with phase 2, to try to mitigate some of the potential risk.
Seems arbitrary and unnecessary to wait for 4000 tests at the end of May for phase 2.
College Terrace
on May 15, 2020 at 12:07 pm
on May 15, 2020 at 12:07 pm
2 weeks of declining cases.
Has that happened?
Midtown
on May 15, 2020 at 12:35 pm
on May 15, 2020 at 12:35 pm
Cases per day have been going up and down.
Hospitalizations in Bay Area have not been going down--"stubborn plateau"
Old Palo Alto
on May 15, 2020 at 12:45 pm
on May 15, 2020 at 12:45 pm
@Lunch Counter Rule. The 7-day rolling average of the number of cases for the last week is the same as the previous week. In SCC, there are about 100 newly confirmed cases per week. The number of people who are infected is perhaps 5X the number of people who test positive (as most people who are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms will not be tested), and assuming people are infectious on average for 7 days, there are about 100 x 5 = 500 infectious people in the county. This is likely comparable to the number of carriers in late February, so the number of cases could grow very rapidly if we go back to "normal" too fast. I trust Dr. Cody's leadership, and for me, having confidence prevalence is very low (and not just undetected) is important.
I have a friend who lives in Wuhan. They found 6 cases in the entire city (population 11 million), and are now testing *everyone*. He just filled out the paperwork to be tested.
Downtown North
on May 15, 2020 at 12:59 pm
on May 15, 2020 at 12:59 pm
Available testing capacity and meeting testing goals are two very different things. Given all the restrictions, are people actually getting tests in numbers that meet current capacity? Or is there actually a shortage of demand for tests?
Downtown North
on May 15, 2020 at 1:03 pm
on May 15, 2020 at 1:03 pm
@Clara,
"It will be very difficult for SCC to continue to justify waiting on the move to Phase 2 as now all 5 other bay area counties have split from SCC and are going to Phase 2..."
And for people who live in PA, that's not much of an issue anyway. We can just go to Menlo Park to shop, eat, etc. For people in San Jose, it's a different matter.
Professorville
on May 15, 2020 at 1:10 pm
on May 15, 2020 at 1:10 pm
“In these challenging times, we're all in this together, so stay home and stay safe!” TM
Except we're not all in this together. Politicians are still getting paid. Bureaucrats are still getting paid. The permanently unemployed are still getting paid. They don't give a d*mn about the people who are losing jobs and businesses. They are NOT in this with them.
Ventura
on May 15, 2020 at 1:11 pm
on May 15, 2020 at 1:11 pm
Look at the dashboard (Web Link Absolute cases coming down for 5 weeks. This despite increases in testing. Wednesday it was 2 positive cases and 1130 negatives. The day before 9 out of 1288, the day before that 9 out of 993, the day before that 7 out of 846. Right now we are at less than 1% test positivity. Hospitalizations coming down sharply, right now at 84. Anyone reading, please investigate for yourself.
Ventura
on May 15, 2020 at 1:22 pm
on May 15, 2020 at 1:22 pm
My numbers are slightly inaccurate because they updated the dashboard just after I posted. For the last 7 days 69/6601=1.04% positive, but less than 1% each of the last 5 days.
Old Palo Alto
on May 15, 2020 at 1:38 pm
on May 15, 2020 at 1:38 pm
@Messifan: You are correct: the test positivity rate is a bit over 1% pf those testing. However, The data for the last 5 days is incomplete due to lags in getting the test results. I have tracked the total number of confirmed cases from the dashboard every day (since mid-March). Here are the numbers:
As of 4/30, there were 2179 confirmed cases
As of 5/7, there were 2290 confirmed cases
As of today (7 days later), there are 2403 confirmed cases.
So, 111 new cases from 4/30 to 5/7, then 113 new cases in the last week. Stable, not decreasing. The number of weekly tests has increased slightly (from 8388 to 9265 per week) during that time. The number of infectious people is likely several times the number of new cases each week, as most infectious people are not tested.
Professorville
on May 15, 2020 at 1:44 pm
on May 15, 2020 at 1:44 pm
Could someone please tell me what the CURRENT RATIONALE is for the lockdown?
Two months ago it was “flatten the curve” to save the medical establishment.
What is it now?
Ventura
on May 15, 2020 at 2:25 pm
on May 15, 2020 at 2:25 pm
@Keith
Could we at least agree that there is something wrong that you have to collect the data by hand rather than finding it in the dashboard? The SF dashboard, for instance, has downloadable data, as do many others.
While counting is not finished for the week, is there a bias in the earlier results? Like later data that comes in is more likely to be positive? A sincere question, I don't know.
I am not sure why you don't use denominators. I think the fraction positive is more relevant than just the numerator. So the percentage positive went down from 1.3% to 1.2% by your numbers. I suspect the percentage positive has gone down every week for 5 weeks but that would take some work to prove. When we get to 4000 tests, if ever, the cases may also stay stable or even go up, but the test positivity rate going down would be a reflection of the population positivity rate going down as well.
Professorville
on May 15, 2020 at 2:35 pm
on May 15, 2020 at 2:35 pm
I looked at the numbers from the navy aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt. Of the approximately 4800 crew, 1156 contracted the disease, seven were hospitalized and one died. The dead man was a chief petty officer. His age wasn't given, but chief petty officers are usually the oldest person on a navy ship.
So, one person in 4800 died of the virus in a very enclosed environment during an epedemic. Continuing the present policies can now be considered hysteria. Thousands more are dying by additional suicides and drug overdoses. These draconian policies may be killing more people than we are saving.
Mountain View
on May 15, 2020 at 3:04 pm
on May 15, 2020 at 3:04 pm
Hysteria....agreed! I’ve been saying for at least a MONTH. The numbers do NOT JUSTIFY this level of lockdown. All those protests in Orange County, San Diego, Sacramento....they’ve been happening for over three weeks. Any huge outbreaks?
NO!
Please people, stop letting the media feed these fears, stoke these fears. They are unfounded. Wake up! There is HOPE! the likelihood of catching, let alone dying from COVID is low. Unless you are in a nursing home, cruise ship, over 65 or immune compromised the chances are ridiculously low.
Isn’t this great news?
Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on May 15, 2020 at 3:09 pm
on May 15, 2020 at 3:09 pm
I had a dry cough for awhile a few weeks ago and I attributed it to something else when my doctor suggested I get tested. But the "something else" was never as bad as it was this time, and I also never felt like I had trouble breathing before. A child (asthmatic teen) also complained around them of feeling like it was hard to breath, which we chalked up to allergies even though that's not a complaint at any other time. Neither of us had a fever so we didn't want to take a test from someone else.
Now it's better for both of us, and I'm now wondering if we should have gotten tested. Will the blood tests become available? I'm curious to know, if it turns out that infection confers immunity.
Midtown
on May 15, 2020 at 4:16 pm
on May 15, 2020 at 4:16 pm
It clearly says: anyone can get one.
Then it says: you have to have an appointment.
When you try to sign up for an appointment, it says you have to meet certain criteria.
Then it wants all of your personal information BEFORE it will tell you if you are cleared to get an appointment for the test.
Sorry, but this is all BS
Mountain View
on May 15, 2020 at 5:01 pm
on May 15, 2020 at 5:01 pm
@keith why just look at last 2 weeks and not last 5 weeks?
Compared to the peak in April, new cases are down drastically despite increased testing.
Hospitalizations are also down drastically!
Also if 5x are mild cases or asymptomatic then isn't the mortality rate already 6 times lower? Then, does SIP make sense anymore? specially considering we have hit a plateau on lower bound and things are not going to improve beyond this point
I agree SIP helped initially with flattening the curve but now its stagnated.
I also agree we need to be careful, wash hands, use masks etc. but WE NEED TO MOVE TO PHASE 2 APAP. SIP doesn't make sense anymore
Also, its county's incompetence that they haven't been able to ramp up testing and contact tracing after 2 months
We will be locked down for 76 days which is equivalent to wuhan and some people still want to continue this stupid half baked SIP
University South
on May 15, 2020 at 8:09 pm
on May 15, 2020 at 8:09 pm
T,
Have you heard that there is a shortage of testing?
Are you getting your news from Fox?
Midtown
on May 15, 2020 at 8:11 pm
on May 15, 2020 at 8:11 pm
The FDA has been behaving like an F-ing Dumb A$$ getting test kits into
market using "Emergency Use Authorization". And media plays it up
by omitting "EUA" and simply stating "FDA approved", playing into
the already misinformed public playing doctors, scientists, etc.
If you were tested with Abbott rapid test, remember there's a 'ah but"
after the result.
Old Palo Alto
on May 15, 2020 at 9:07 pm
on May 15, 2020 at 9:07 pm
Orange County confirmed cases AND hospitalizations are consistently increasing.
Web Link
And the percentage positive is increasing as well. We'll see how this develops.
I hope we do better, and we are well prepared to get kids into real classes this fall. Doing so will make a huge difference in many people's lives.
Professorville
on May 15, 2020 at 9:42 pm
on May 15, 2020 at 9:42 pm
All the mitigation measures help to at least some degree. Mask wearing, physical distancing, stay in place. The Bay Area was the first in CA and we are reaping the reward for that....so far. Some of the hospitals in the south bay were overrun to a degree (40 ventilators running at one of them) but the ones near San Mateo County actually dodged a big bullet. With cancelled surgeries they were actually slow.
But even one infectious person running around with a mask on touching stuff could really spread this. It doesn't take much.
For the states that had/have SIP orders the curve is indeed flattening. But in states that never did institute the orders are now "opening up". Those states now are having a curve just going straight up. (though many educated citizens in these states did SIP on their own or in the larger Blue Cities within)
What this means is that we will now have to hunker down even more in response. Backwash we don't want.
Plus Trump and his administration seem hell bent on totally not doing anything. Other than trying to diminish the number count. (with help from the Hoover Institute, Victor David Hansen and all).
Watch for this---the numbers of positive tests, or the prevalence of the virus will be inflated. But the numbers of deaths attributed to the virus will be downgraded. Sure if ONE person with every known co-morbidity dies it may be a toss up what really killed him or her. But when you have an increase in total deaths way above the average even when subtracting out known slam dunk Covid 19 cases you can then assign a number. That will be disputed.
I also predict that Trump will soon come out with a "vaccine" akin to his Chloroquine and Lysol cures. "Hey a vaccine is available, everyone go out and play and spend money." No thanks.
But all this "opening up" will be of no economic benefit if the public doesn't believe it's safe. Go ahead and schedule a game at a stadium and see how many people show up. I agree some things can be opened up a bit, IF done right. Elective surgery, certain assembly lines IF distance between and physical distancing at work. But production will be severely curtailed. Prices will rise, people with less money to pay. At best the "economic patient" will be on a sort of life support.
Trump doesn't care about anyone except himself. The hypocrite does nothing to help get testing or needed supplies for the American people. Yet he himself has his staff tested daily and lives in a paranoid little bubble. He openly talks of his TV ratings at the press conferences, how he doesn't want testing maybe as that makes the numbers not look good. Anyone can expect that there will be delays, setbacks etc. But Trump has now wholesale given up on even pretending to try and fight this virus.
His goal now is to prove that he can order people to go out and about. West Point Cadets an obvious audience he can summon as proof of his power. His plan is to bloody the American People into a sort of fealty to his power. [Portion removed.]
And Elon Musk, with Telsa in dire financial straits, now does a phony media blitz to get Trump's attention and intervention on his behalf. Yet this now makes him an even more despised person.
Barron Park
on May 15, 2020 at 10:59 pm
on May 15, 2020 at 10:59 pm
It is very hard to have constantly declining cases when you have very few cases to start with. After looking at the data from different sources I have limited confidence in the Santa Clara County officials and their judgement call of not moving into phase 2. People are hurting, they are losing their jobs left and right, people are going hungry. Not everyone can afford to shelter in place and wait for the cases to down to zero. Can someone please explain how are the numbers in Santa Clara different from San Mate or or San Francisco to fall out of lockstep in this way?
Mountain View
on May 15, 2020 at 11:28 pm
on May 15, 2020 at 11:28 pm
[Post removed.]
Mountain View
on May 15, 2020 at 11:45 pm
on May 15, 2020 at 11:45 pm
So Wakey -- you're always complaining that those of us who take the COVID-19 seriously are getting our facts wrong.
The problem you have is that you refuse to acknowledge *anything*. All you have is denial, denial, and more denial.
And quite frankly, it's getting tiresome.
Why, exactly, do you have a problem with the facts?
Palo Alto Hills
on May 16, 2020 at 2:17 am
on May 16, 2020 at 2:17 am
In addition to social distancing and ramping up testing, shouldn’t we be more aggressively moving into improved isolation/treatment/monitoring of positive patients and tracing and isolation/monitoring of those in contact with the patiences? I see Taiwan and South Korea both manage the issue very effectively and they have been enjoying 0 community infections; 34 days in Taiwan and several days in Korea until a recent outburst. In New York, over 60% new infections were in home contact with infected family members. In Taiwan, every infected person is treated and monitored in hospital. If we run out of hospital rooms, we can locate infected persons in free hotels and provide all patients with free meals and daily monitoring with trained nurse. We need to take care of the sick more generously and mobilize the tracing effort, maybe by hiring lots of new college graduates. We need to aggressively trace and isolate infected people, but not just passively do distancing and testing alone!
Community Center
on May 16, 2020 at 8:31 am
on May 16, 2020 at 8:31 am
@ Anonymous -- I completely agree. Our numbers are too low to rely on whether they decline every day as a metric. Week over week makes more sense, looking back a couple of months. I also think there is probably a baseline level that we can't go below -- we aren't an island, we have to leave our homes a little bit to meet basic needs, and infected people have to interact with healthcare professionals at the very least, so it's practically impossible not to have some new cases every day.
I also can't understand what is different about our numbers v. San Mateo and SF to justify not having us also go to Phase 2. I don't think their testing or contact tracing is any more advanced than ours.
Midtown
on May 16, 2020 at 8:45 am
on May 16, 2020 at 8:45 am
>> People are hurting, they are losing their jobs left and right,
>> people are going hungry. [...]
>> Can someone please explain how are the numbers
Unfortunately, when statistics is used as science, analysts can convince
people about anything with their ANALysis. The focus of numbers and
models to "predict the future" has drowned the core necessity to resume
new normal life, namely, widespread reliable COVID19 testing availability
to everyone (not just the top 1%) and N95 masks until a vaccine.
Think: If "numbers" go to zero, would you abandon effort to find a
vaccine? Statistics and data analysis?
Nobody likes to stay put! But playing politics is not the answer, in
my opinion. Throwing money at the problem with no leadership does
not help.
Instead of clamoring and protesting to "reopen", they should clamor
and protest for COVID19 testing availability and N95 PPE, so we can
resume our activities by taking the necessary precautions. Simply
denying the facts because they are not good is what governments in
other countries do.
3 Trillion distributed to 60 million people = $50,000 each!
Palo Verde
on May 16, 2020 at 5:20 pm
on May 16, 2020 at 5:20 pm
Did California set a new Covid daily fatality record of 153 yesterday?
Barron Park
on May 17, 2020 at 9:36 am
on May 17, 2020 at 9:36 am
Is there a testing location in Palo Alto? I have not heard of one.
Old Palo Alto
on May 18, 2020 at 3:02 pm
on May 18, 2020 at 3:02 pm
@Gus L. There's a very large drive-thru testing location at Stanford on Galvez, near the stadium. It should be fairly easy to get a referral, although you may not even need one.
The number of infectious people is significantly greater than the number of confirmed positive cases, and people remain infectious for 5 - 10 days. For Sunday and Monday, the total number of confirmed cases reported by SCC increased by 52.
SCC just revised the health order, effective 5/22, relaxing some restrictions.
Web Link
Old Palo Alto
on May 18, 2020 at 3:23 pm
on May 18, 2020 at 3:23 pm
Curbside pickup is permitted effective 5/22
Web Link
Duveneck/St. Francis
on May 18, 2020 at 8:30 pm
on May 18, 2020 at 8:30 pm
Free COVID-19 testing is now available across the Bay Area via this website, Project Baseline
Web Link
I signed up for a test on Wednesday because I have a small cough which is probably seasonal allergies but would rather be sure.
Adobe-Meadow
on May 20, 2020 at 11:43 am
on May 20, 2020 at 11:43 am
I read about the county hiring all of these people to do contact tracing. That is very weird and disturbing. Where is the legal eagles ACLU on that front? And Apple is participating in this?
I went to get my car smog checked and did not bring my phone. I told the people I did not want my phone to know where I am. And I do not take my phone to the grocery store. All my phone is going to look at is the inside of my home. There is no message that cannot wait until I get home. And a lot of the messages are for donating money to people I have no connection to. We are now in scam city with all types of requests for donations - via your phone.
Adobe-Meadow
on May 20, 2020 at 11:49 am
on May 20, 2020 at 11:49 am
If you think you have allergies did you take a allergy pill? Your whole environment is now growing at a rapid rate. The allergy component is very high now due to the winds. And if you do not clean your house then the dust is building up. If you don't have a temperature then start with the obvious and get an allergy pill. I suspect that the politics have now driven the message that any thing that happens, including death to people with a vulnerable system is Covid.
Downtown North
on May 20, 2020 at 1:00 pm
on May 20, 2020 at 1:00 pm
I am glad to see testing more easily available these days. Who should be getting tested at this point? Only people with a doctor's recommendation? Only people with symptoms (how bad)? What about essential workers and other people in high risk groups who have no symptoms?
Duveneck/St. Francis
on May 21, 2020 at 1:41 pm
on May 21, 2020 at 1:41 pm
You don’t need any symptoms to be tested at the San Jose Fairgrounds site. They are interested in trying to pick up more information about asymptomatic positives. People have got used to the message about test scarcity, but now there is much more capacity. This site is said to be doing about 300 tests a day.
I visited for a test on Wednesday. It was efficient and easy, and felt very safe. You administer your own nasal swab (it’s not the test that feels like the swab goes into your brain, as people describe it). Car windows stay up right to the moment you administer your test. You don’t come close to anyone else. Results due in 2-5 days.