Lake Tahoe Community College one of two new free COVID-19 testing sites in county

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - El Dorado County officials announced Sunday they will open two appointment-only community sites for COVID-19 testing for any resident wanting to be tested for the virus, one in South Lake Tahoe and the other in Shingle Springs.

These sites follow Governor Newsom's announcement last week to add more than 80 community COVID-19 testing sites across the state, focusing on underserved communities. His goal is to test 60,000 to 80,000 people per day for the virus as the state prepares to reopen.

"These are not antibody tests to detect whether someone has any level of immunity against COVID-19,” said El Dorado County Public Health Officer, Dr. Nancy Williams. “These are nasal or nasopharyngeal swab tests that will determine if someone has the presence of the COVID-19 virus at the time of testing. We’re making the test available to anyone in the County who wishes to have it, free of charge, even if they are asymptomatic although people with symptoms are the highest priority.”

Lake Tahoe Community College (LTCC) will be testing those with appointments starting Tuesday, May 5 in the school's gymnasium. That site will be open Tuesday-Saturday from 7:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

The other El Dorado County test site will be located in the small gym at Ponderosa High School starting Monday, May 4. The Shingle Springs school will be open Thursday-Monday from 7:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Each site will provide testing of up to 132 tests a day for anyone who has made an appointment. Sites are scheduled to be operational for a minimum of two months. To register for an appointment, people can visit https://lhi.care/covidtesting. Those without internet access can call 888-634-1123.

LTCC Superintendent/President Jeff DeFranco said the school's leadership team had, "stated since the beginning of this crisis that we will strive to be part of the solution where possible."

At one time there was a possibility that LTCC facilities might be used as a surge hospital, but it was determined the campus could serve the community with the most impact during the pandemic by hosting a testing center.

No school personnel will be involved in the testing.

“There is absolutely no barrier to being tested,” Williams stressed, noting that “citizen status will not be checked, cost is covered either by your medical insurance or by the State if you are uninsured, and if someone is without identification, testing staff will generate a unique identifier number to obtain results. The only requirement is an appointment."

Test results are expected to take 48-72 hours. All test results will be entered into the California Reportable Disease Information Exchange (CalREDIE) site. Patients will receive a card at the time of testing directing them to a site for test results. Patients who test positive will be contacted by telephone by a nurse.

“If you’re curious as to whether an illness you had this winter was COVID-19, this is not the test for you,” Williams stressed.

“Being tested at one of these sites will only tell you if you currently have an infection, which is most likely if you have symptoms now or if you had contact in the last few days with someone who had COVID-19," Williams said. “Some people are infected who have had no symptoms but they most likely spent significant time around people who had symptoms prior to that, like a household member.”

To determine where to locate new testing sites, the state looked at both rural and urban areas where Californians would have to travel between 30 and 60 minutes to reach an existing testing site or hospital. That information was then evaluated based on underserved populations, to address known disparities, and median income, so residents have access to testing regardless of socioeconomic status. They are provided through a partnership with OptumServe, the federal government health services business of Optum, a leading health services innovation company.