New Pop-Up Testing Targets Impacted Groups in Sonoma County

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Sonoma County health officials announced on Monday the launch of new, more aggressive steps to reach directly into the county’s most vulnerable neighborhoods to test more people for the coronavirus, help them isolate, and hopefully interrupt the spread of COVID-19 in the community.

The key to the effort will be a doubling in the number of pop-up testing sites available to the public. Beginning on Tuesday October 20th, testing will begin at four new pop-up locations in the county, and offer tests each week from Tuesday through Friday. Each location will test on only one day of the week. Here is the schedule for this week. The schedule will be the same in the coming weeks.

County health officials encourage residents from impacted communities to schedule a test, whether or not they have symptoms.

Tuesday October 20th, Andy’s Unity Park, 3399 Moorland Ave., Santa Rosa, from 1:30PM to 4PM
Wednesday October 21st, Healdsburg Day Labor Center, 405 Grove St., Healdsburg, from 9AM to 11:30AM
Thursday October 22nd, Roseland Library, 779 Sebastopol Road, Santa Rosa, from 1:30PM to 4PM
Friday October 23rd, Rohnert Park Library, 6250 Lynne Conde Way, Rohnert Park, from 9AM to 11:30AM

Targeting disproportionately impacted communities across the county with testing outreach is seen by county officials as a key step in bringing down the rate of community transmission of COVID-19 in Sonoma County. Health officials also plan to provide financial help, if necessary, to those who test positive to encourage them to safely isolate and not continue to work. Programs like this have been used successfully in other Bay Area counties.

Sonoma is currently the only county in the immediate Bay Area which has not met all of the thresholds for moving from the state’s most restrictive Purple Tier, to the less restrictive Red Tier. One key issue has been high case rates among the most impacted communities in the county, which include the Latinx and indigenous communities.

The county also currently offers testing at two other sites:

Empire College at 3035 Cleveland Avenue, Santa Rosa
Alliance Medical Center at 1381 University Avenue in Healdsburg

Appointments for the pop-up locations and the other county sites above can be made by calling 707 565-4667. Appointments can be made in Spanish or English.

In addition, the state is currently offering testing through their partner OptumServe at two other county locations:

Windsor Bluebird Community Center, 25 Bluebird Drive, Windsor
Sonoma County Fairgrounds, Jockey Club, Santa Rosa

Appointments for the two sites above can be made by calling 1-888-634-1123. Testing is open to everyone, regardless of whether they are symptomatic or have been exposed to a person with COVID-19.