With 875 positive cases of COVID-19 in Long Beach and 60,614 in California as of May 8, Long Beach has taken new steps to protect its frontline workers with free testing.
In an initiative announced by Mayor Robert Garcia on April 29 and beginning April 30, numerous Long Beach locations will now be providing free testing to frontline workers, including those who are non-symptomatic.
According to his announcement, Long Beach now has the ability to test over 1,000 people a day, “Which is critical to getting our economy moving again,” Garcia said.
Frontline workers include those working at grocery stores, in healthcare, in public safety, at restaurants that are still open for take-out or any of the other positions still operating throughout the pandemic.
LBCC student and grocery store worker Adriana Galan said in a May 5 phone interview that she most likely will not seek testing and does not feel overly concerned about exposure.
“I probably won’t [get tested]… I don’t feel like it’s necessary. To be quite honest I think my store and my crew got exposed a lot earlier in the year.”
Galan shared her thoughts on accessible testing.
“If somebody wants access to [a test], they should be able to get it,” Galan said.
Galan further explained the reasoning that could prevent essential workers from seeking testing even as it becomes more available.
“If you’re waiting for results from a COVID test, you can’t work until you’ve received your result. If I could get tested without anything coming out of it, then I wouldn’t see why not.”
Previously, testing was largely inaccessible and original tests released ranged from $50-$250, with some reports claiming tests were administered for up to $600.
Testing was largely available only to those over 60 years old, and at least a few of the CDC-defined symptoms.
Mayor Garcia said he hopes testing will soon be extended to all Long Beach residents.
According to an April 22 article by CBS News 8, “The governor said the state’s goal is to be able to test 60,000 – 80,000 people per day in the state. 60,000 people a day would represent 125 in every 100,000 people.”
86 new testing sites across California had been announced at the same time.
Non-symptomatic frontline workers may get tested at Jordan Plus High School and Long Beach City College.
In an email from May 6, LBCC nursing program director Sigrid Saxton said, “The tests provided at LBCC are for the virus, not for antibodies. This is testing that is needed for this stage of the epidemic to determine who is shedding the virus. Once people are identified as shedding COVID-19 virus they can be treated appropriately and can be instructed to isolate to avoid spread of the virus.”
Saxton specified what a “negative” test means for diagnosis.
“A negative virus test does not mean that you don’t have the virus. It is possible to carry the virus and have a negative test, for example, if the viral load is low and the swab doesn’t pick up enough virus to show up,” Saxton said.
In regards to the amount of testing being conducted at LBCC, Saxton said, “There have been 100 appointments and tests available each day… We have not run out of tests on any day. There were about 85 a day, but for the last couple of days there have been fewer.”
Mayor Garcia urged Long Beach residents to visit www.longbeach.gov/covid19 for more information.
A testing tab is available with a complete list of locations and addresses.