System overload
Adventist Health Sonora asks for patience as demand for COVID-19 testing grows
Almost all of the people hospitalized with COVID-19 are unvaccinated. While breakthrough cases do happen, the vast majority of people getting COVID-19 — and spreading it to their families, friends, and neighbors — are unvaccinated. This is putting a real strain on our frontline workers, and they need the community’s help to make sure our hospital resources remain fully ready to care for all patients in our community.”
— Jaquelyn Lugg, Adventist Health Sonora spokeswoman
Robin Resare, 68, who tested positive for COVID-19 in early August, waited more than two hours Thursday morning for a follow up consultation at the Adventist Health Sonora Indian Rock Rapid Care clinic off Mono Way.
“Normally they’re very efficient here,” Resare said after 10 a.m., seated at the wheel of her SUV in a line of a half-dozen vehicles. “They only have one doctor here today. These cars in line are all here for COVID tests. They have patients inside, too.”
She had arrived about 8:15 a.m., and the line had barely moved. Asked if she was frustrated by the wait, Resare said no, “COVID itself is frustrating. They’re doing the best they can here.”
By 10:20 a.m., the line was moving and Resare got to move her vehicle forward. She said a health care worker intended to listen to her lungs, to see how she was recovering.
The numbers of people seeking out COVID-19 testing have ramped up significantly in recent weeks, and Adventist Health Sonora and Tuolumne County Public Health are trying to keep up.
The pandemic has surged again among unvaccinated individuals, who make up 90% of the county’s 640 cases since May 24, when county Public Health began reporting the vaccination status of each new case.
“Demand for testing at our clinics has increased greatly over the last several weeks, though we don’t have a quantifiable number at this point,” Jaquelyn Lugg, spokeswoman for Adventist Health Sonora, said Thursday afternoon.
“Our two Rapid Care clinics are testing between 60 and 90 people a day in total, and our Emergency Department is testing every admitted patient as well,” Lugg said. “Given the increased demand for tests, we ask that the community please be patient. Staff are working as quickly as possible to provide accurate testing.”
Testing for COVID-19 is available at the Adventist Health Sonora Rapid Care clinics at Indian Rock and Angels Camp, Lugg said. Testing is also available at the hospital’s Emergency Department, for symptomatic individuals only at this time. The Adventist Health Sonora locations are open on a walk-in basis.
Testing by appointment has been available from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. four days a week at the state Optumserve testing site at the Tuolumne Veterans Memorial Hall, and switches to seven days a week beginning today, Friday, Aug. 13. The testing site is to be relocated back to the Mother Lode Fairgrounds in Sonora and is expected to be open and operating by Wednesday, Aug. 18.
Due to increased demand, appointments should be made rather than walking in, Tuolumne County Public Health announced this week. Appointments can be scheduled at www.lhi.care/covidtesting or by calling (888) 634-1123.
Some individuals seeking to get tested for COVID-19 have been turned away at some testing locations as recently as this past weekend because they did not have appointments.
Lugg emphasized that, while
new cases continue to surge and fuel demand for more testing, people need to remember rapid testing is just one of the available tools we have to slow the spread of COVID-19 and keep our community healthy.
“If you’ve been exposed to COVID-19 or are experiencing symptoms, it’s important that you get tested to make sure you’re not passing on the virus to your loved ones and that you get the care you need,” she said. “Which is why we’ll continue to provide testing for symptomatic individuals at our Rapid Care locations and Emergency Department.”
Far more important and effective than rapid testing and test results are vaccinations and wearing masks in public, Lugg said, underscoring the advice of federal, state and local health authorities.
“Almost all of the people hospitalized with COVID-19 are unvaccinated,” she said. “While breakthrough cases do happen, the vast majority of people getting COVID-19 — and spreading it to their families, friends, and neighbors — are unvaccinated. This is putting a real strain on our frontline workers, and they need the community’s help to make sure our hospital resources remain fully ready to care for all patients in our community.”
Increased demand for COVID-19 testing has exceeded capacity on some recent days at the Tuolumne Veterans Memorial Hall state site, Michelle Jachetta, the county Public Health director, confirmed Thursday afternoon. The site can test more than 190 individuals daily, and on some days the site has accommodated more than its daily capacity.
Testing declined significantly in June and early July to between 10% and 25% of the daily capacity for the state testing site, Jachetta said. By the week of July 25, it had increased significantly and, as of this week, county Public Health continued to see high numbers of people seeking tests.
Recent increases in testing are due to several reasons, Jachetta said.
“First of all, a lot of people are getting sick, and it’s good that they are getting tested to identify if it’s COVID so we can get them isolated and help prevent further spread,” she said. “In addition, folks are getting tested because they may have been identified as a close contact to someone who tested positive, and they want to quickly identify if they might have gotten the virus. The rise in cases we’re seeing also means there are more contacts — household, workplace, and community — who need to quarantine and get tested. Also, routine surveillance testing is happening among those who work with the public or are otherwise advised to get tested on a routine basis.”
Testing helps quickly identify cases and reduce the spread of disease, Jachetta said. Tuolumne County Public Health has been coordinating expansion of testing availability, the state site will be open every day starting Friday, and “we will continue to monitor the ongoing demand for testing.”
Vaccination, wearing a mask in public, washing hands, and staying home when sick remain vital to reducing Tuolumne County cases of COVID-19, Jachetta said.
According to Pew Charitable Trusts, a nonpartisan think tank based in the nation’s capital, demand for COVID-19 testing began plummeting earlier this year as more U.S. residents received vaccinations.
At the time, some public health professionals and observers said it was a positive development wrapped in a potentially worrisome one, the Pew Trusts reported in March.
The decline in testing earlier this year reflected diminishing COVID-19 caseloads, and suggested fewer Americans were fearful that they had contracted or been exposed to the virus. More and more people became less inclined to get tested.
The big drop-off in COVID-19 testing from January to March was a success story in a lot of ways, Christina Silcox, a policy fellow at Duke University’s Margolis Center for Health Policy, told the Pew Trusts.
But the same dramatic drop in testing hampered epidemiologists’ ability to spot and stem new surges of the deadly infection that were expected, months before enough of the nation’s population could be vaccinated to reach any semblance of so-called herd immunity, according to the Pew Trusts.
Adventist Health Sonora continues to strongly urge everyone to get vaccinated as soon as possible and to continue wearing masks in public.