Drive through Testing of Health Care Workers Begins This Weekend

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Sonoma County heath officer Dr. Sundari Mase announced Wednesday a new, more aggressive push to test more people across Sonoma County. In part, she said, the increased testing was made possible by the arrival of thousands of testing swabs, with 100 thousand more on order.

Beginning Saturday, drive through testing will be done on 200 health care workers each day, with the goal of testing front line workers first, and the general public later.

The first tests will be conducted on healthcare workers with symptoms, and then move on to asymptomatic healthcare workers. Then, according to Mase, the testing will move on to symptomatic first responders. After that providers of essential services with symptoms will be eligible for testing, followed by the general public.

Mase did not say when the testing will reach each group, and when more widespread testing of the general public would take place.

On Wednesday, Governor Gavin Newsom announced a plan to test 60 thousand Californians each day in the next few months, as a prerequisite to reopening the state’s economy. That would translate to approximately 600 tests per day in Sonoma County.