With Christmas just a few days away, many Central Coast residents are trying to get tested for COVID-19. This, along with the increase in cases, is now having an impact on community testing sites.
Many test sites around Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties do not have appointments available. Santa Barbara County officials say a major reason for this is the upcoming holidays.
“Some of them may be with people worried about the holiday season. We saw that during the Thanksgiving holiday,” said Matt Higgs, EMS systems coordinator for Santa Barbara County.
Higgs is one of the COVID-19 testing potentials in Santa Barbara County and says the availability of free testing sites in the county right now is very low.
Some are fully booked, while the shortest meetings at others are not until Christmas Eve, in both Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.
The results take longer.
Shylo Tuter has been tested at a county site in Paso Robles and calls the process quick.
“They took me back, they tested me and I mean, it was a very quick process there. I went in and out, which was great because I wasn’t feeling well,” Tuter said.
Tuter says he had symptoms and said this was the main reason he could be tested quickly.
Others without symptoms call the experience more challenging.
According to the public health of Santa Barbara County, county test sites do not require symptomatic, but may not be the case for other health care providers.
Some clinical providers require that some individuals be symptomatic before being tested, but this is an internal decision based on the organization that provides it, Higgs said.
At Med Stop Urgent Care in San Luis Obispo, Dr. Brian Roberts says he sees a record number of more than 100 patients a day wanting to be tested.
“I’m going to Hawaii or I’m going to Alaska, I have a trip that I’ve planned, so a trip or seeing relatives is a little more than half of that right now,” Dr. Roberts said.
Even though holiday travel is discouraged by local health officials, both Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties expect test areas to be affected during and after the holiday season.
Santa Barbara County officials say they plan to expand their test sites very soon.
Prices for COVID-19 testing on non-county sites can range from no cost to more than $ 100.
If you are interested in fast testing, both Rite-Aid and CVS offer testing in several locations in both SLO and Santa Barbara counties.
For more information on test sites, you can visit –
Santa Barbara County COVID-19 test site:
https://publichealthsbc.org/testing/
COVID-19 test site in San Luis Obispo County:
https://www.emergencyslo.org/en/testing-locations.aspx