Turning out to be tested Lodi residents take advantage of free COVID-19 test day
Three weeks ago, Lodi resident Mayra Moreno had a slight fever, and out of an abundance of caution, decided to get tested for COVID-19. About a week later, her results came back positive.
Moreno had a fever before she tested positive, she said, but over the course of the past couple weeks, she said her lone symptom had dissipated.
On Friday, she was one of a couple hundred people lined up at First Baptist Church on Mills Avenue to take advantage of free, drive-through COVID-19 testing offered by Adventist Health Lodi Memorial, Carbon Health and El Concilio.
“I had a (second) testing with the hospital on July 27, but I missed my appointment and couldn’t reschedule with them,” Moreno said. “Then I heard about this and decided to come down to get another test. I’m confident I’ll be over it after this test.”
Moreno brought her mother-in-law along for a test as well, as she also experienced a fever and tested positive a few weeks ago.
The pair, as well as other residents wanting to take advantage of the free testing, waited in their cars and were instructed to park along the south side of the church, where a team of health officials registered patients and administered tests.
The whole process took about 30 minutes, as health officials were required to change personal protective equipment between each test, and depending on how many people were in each vehicle for registration and screening.
While motorists waited, an educational video educated them about preventing the spread of COVID-19.
Kelsey Kiedrowski brought her three children for testing after being exposed to someone last weekend who had tested positive.
“We’ve been safe thus far, and someone infiltrated our bubble,” she said. “My hands are sweaty and I’m nervous.
We’re happy to get tested for sure. It was such a coincidence that we found out there was a positive test we had been in contact with, and then this was in the paper. Thank God for it, otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to get tested this quickly.”
This was the second free testing event sponsored by the three organizations. The first was held at Rancho San Miguel on July 3, and was aimed at reaching out to members of San Joaquin County’s Hispanic community.
During that first event, some 600 residents turned out, but health officials could only administer about 475 tests.
Dr. Patricia Iris, chief medical officer at Adventist Health Lodi Memorial, said her staff was anticipating screening about 260 people Friday, when testing was open to all members of the community.
“In San Joaquin County, we’re seeing this large rise of coronavirus, not just in tests but in hospitalizations,” Iris said. “We’ve recently plateaued, but we’re still seeing patients in the hospitals and intensive care units every single day. And so, the goal for this is to be able to have awareness if people do have COVID, and if they do, to self-quarantine for a period of time so it isn’t able to spread.”
With the plateau in COVID-19 cases, she said, hospitals in the county have a little bit of time before the flu season arrives to educate residents about using masks and washing their hands to prevent the spread of the virus.
When the second surge of positive COVID-19 cases hit the county, patients were reporting a turnaround time of about a week before they received test results. Friday’s tests would be turned around in about three days, Iris said.
In Lodi, the community’s older population seemed to be adhering to health and safety guidelines of washing hands, wearing masks and social distancing more than younger residents, Iris said, because they know they are more at risk to exposure.
“The younger generations, they just don’t feel it, they don’t see it,” she said. “That’s why a lot of our patient education is in video format, telling stories of people who have gotten sick, their family members, and unfortunately some of those are deaths.”
According to San Joaquin County Public Health Services, residents 18 to 49 years old account for 42.6% of the county’s population and 61.4% of COVID-19 cases in the region. They make up 7.7% of the deaths in the county.
However, while seniors over the age of 65 account for 13.5% of the county’s population only 10.7% of all cases, they make up 65.9% of deaths.
While schools in other parts of the country are reopening with in-person instruction and causing a spike in the number of cases among children and teens, Iris said San Joaquin County has seen few cases among youngsters and even fewer hospitalizations.
Children 17 and younger account for 9.2% of San Joaquin County’s COVID19 cases, according to Public Health. There have been no deaths among children in the county.
On Friday, as California became the first state to report 600,000 COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began in March, county Public Health was reporting a total of 14,651 cases and 261 deaths. The county was still playing catch-up after technical issues at the state level caused an undercount in the number of total cases; the issues did not affect the county’s information about deaths or hospitalizations.
Dr. Roger Wu, Adventist Health Lodi Memorial’s vice chief of staff and the regional medical director at Carbon Health, said the latter entity was more than happy to provide the testing kits for the events and coordinate the free testing with El Concilio and the hospital.
“This is a unique coalition of partnerships between a technology health care provider startup in San Francisco, the hospital and nonprofit all coming together to bring testing to this community,” he said. “I think there’s been a barrier to access, and out goal is to make this as accessible and convenient to patients as possible.”