Pop Up Testing in Graton Targets Latinx Community

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Sonoma County has recently begun conducting field testing for the coronavirus, sending a team of public health nurses and other staff into vunerable communities in order to indentify outbreaks and isolate those infected before community spread can occur.

In the last week so called “popup testing” was done in the Roseland neighborhood of Santa Rosa where more than 100 residents were screened. On Friday morning county health workers were at the Graton Day Labor Center where public health nurses conducted about 25 tests in less than 2 hours.

Statistics show the Latinx community in Sonoma County has been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, with more than half of all known infections detected in that community. This despite the fact that this community represents just over a quarter of the county’s population.

For the county’s public health office, and those involved in outreach, the goal is to make sure as many tests as possible are performed in order to gauge how the virus is behaving in this highly impacted group, and how its spread can be controlled.

More events are planned in the coming weeks. Organizers of this event say effective outreach and trust will be important in reaching more people who may be affected within the Latinx community.