LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County will see expanded COVID-19 testing hours and new weekly schedules beginning in January.
Public Health Officer Dr. Gary Pace said this week that Verily, a South San Francisco-based company that has been conducting testing for the virus in the county since the spring, will be replaced by OptumServe.
Pace said drive-thru testing will no longer be offered. Instead, testing will take place indoors at sites in Lakeport and Lower Lake.
Beginning on Jan. 4, OptumServe will offer testing at the Silveira Community Center, 500 N. Main St. in Lakeport from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays.
Testing will be offered from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at the Lower Lake Town Hall, 16195 Main St.
Pace said walk-ins are welcome and no appointments are necessary. He said the new testing services should be much more accessible.
He said Rite Aid also is offering COVID-19 testing. Appointments can be made at the Rite Aid website, which shows that the service is available at the company’s Clearlake store and is being conducted by Verily.
Public Health officials have continued to urge people to be tested for the coronavirus as a way of identifying those who need care quickly and in an effort to prevent people who are infected from spreading it to others.
As of Wednesday, Lake County Public Health said approximately 21,804 COVID-19 tests have been conducted in Lake County, which has a population of just over 64,000.
Of those tests, 1,524, or 7 percent, have been positive, and 20,280, or 93 percent, have been negative, Lake County Public Health reported.
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Changes to local COVID-19 testing services set to begin in January
- Elizabeth Larson
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