Los Angeles will be the first city to offer free coronavirus testing to all residents wheather they have symptoms or not, Mayor Eric Garcetti aanounced Wenesday.
What We Know:
- The city of LA has set up testing centers around the city that have been used for residents and essential workers who have the sysmptoms. Now, those centers will be used to test any and all residents whether they have symptoms or not.
- Those with the symptoms like fever, cough, and shortness of breath, will still be given priority.
- People can sign up online for apponitments starting immediately.
- Los Angeles city and county have recently increased their number of testing sites in order to have the capacity to test everyone.
- The mayor said “People will be able to go back for test several times, without limit. The California city has the capacity to test 18,000 people per day.”
- The testing procedure is not the nasal swab. Instead, people are asked to cough with masks on three times into the shoulder facing away from the healthcare worker. Then, the person being tested takes a swab and collects particles inside the cheeks, roof of the mouth and under the tongue for 20 seconds before placing the swab into plastic a container and handing it to the healthcare workers.
- Many of the sites in LA County are drive-in, so a person being tested receives the bag that contains the swab and plastic container through a crack in the window, performs the test in the car and then returns the test kit to the worker on site, who uses the instrument to collect the completed test and avoid further possible exposure.
Half of the coronavirus cases in California are in the city of Los Angeles.
