Mary Ann Fails is getting her very first coronavirus test. After waiting in line for more than an hour at the Moorpark College testing site, it’s her turn. A test site worker hands her a small package through her car window.
The Simi Valley woman gives herself the test, first sticking a swab up one nostril, and then the other, and then hands the swab in a vial back to the test site worker.
She says she thinks it went well. She wanted to get tested because she was around somone who had tested positive for the virus.
Ventura County’s COVID-19 test sites are the busiest they been since first opening eight months ago. The Moorpark College site alone handled about 1500 people Wednesday. The County will pass the quarter of a million mark at its test sites this weekend. Linda Bays manages the Ventura County Health Care Agency’s testing program, and says they are the busiest they been in months.
Patrick Maynard, who’s Director of Ventura County’s Office of Emergency Services, believes a combination of things are fueling the interest in getting tested. It includes concern about the surge in new cases in the region, people getting together with others for Thanksgiving, and the county’s push to get people to get tested.
While there are some people here getting tested for the first time, Jim Cowan of Moorpark has done it so many times he could probably recite the instructions by heart.
It’s his seventh time. He says he has someone in a high risk group at home, and because he is out in the community working and sometimes traveling, he wants to stay on top of the situation.
Bays says the good thing about the situation is after doing it for months now, they’ve been able to streamline the process, allowing them to better handle the huge demand.
You can find updated information about COVID-19 testing in Ventura, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo Counties through links on our website, kclu.org.
Interested parties can find Ventura County testing information here: https://bit.ly/3kNBTSv, Santa Barbara County testing information here: https://publichealthsbc.org/testing/, and San Luis Obispo County testing information here: www.emergencyslo.org/en/testing-locations.aspx.
