Drive Thru COVID Testing Avail In Ventura County – Navy Hospital Ship May Not Have Enough Doctors
Written by 991KBU on March 19, 2020
Limited drive thru testing for Covid 19 virus is now available in Oxnard and Thousand Oaks.
The tests are limited to persons with symptoms.
Ventura County has six drive-thru Covid-19 testing centers.
One of them …
By the end of the week they plan to have a total of seven different locations throughout the county.
“Not everyone who comes through a drive-thru will necessarily get tested,” said Theresa Cho, a physician at Ventura County Medical Center.
Persons who are driven up are given questions …. and their temperature is taken.
If they are possibly infected … a nasal swab is taken … right in the car.
Only about 50 tests per location are available right now.
There is no further information available about referrals on the Ventura County Health Authority web site.
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The number of positive cases for the novel coronavirus in Ventura County increased to 13 by Wednesday night, according to Ventura County officials interviewed by the Ventura County Star.
At least five have unknown sources of exposure and are being considered community transmission.
Ventura County schools are closed until May 4th.
Ventura County has ordered people over the age of 75 to shelter in place.
Also … anyone over the age of 70 if they have underlying health problems.
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Statewide … the death toll continues to rise.
At least 836 cases and 17 deaths as of Wednesday in California.
Almost 9 million of California’s 40 million people are living under orders to stay home as much as possible.
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday evening said the state is working to expand the number of available hospital beds by roughly 20,000.
20 thousand beds is the number needed if more than half of Californians come down with the coronavirus.
Newsom has asked the White House to deploy the Navy’s Mercy hospital ship … plus two mobile hospitals to California.
The Mercy … however … is being overhauled in San Diego and might take weeks to get in shipshape.
Defense Secretary Mike Esper says the ship will not treat coronavirus patients. Instead … the Mercy will be used to treat other illnesses or injuries, and free up capacity in civilian hospitals that are expected to be overwhelmed with cases of the virus.
The Mercy has a capacity for about 1,000 beds … but many of their treatment areas are in open areas and would therefore be ill-suited to handling potentially contagious coronavirus patients.
The Mercy should be ready in a week and a half or two weeks … Esper told CNN’s Jake Tapper Wednesday.
But staffing is an issue.
Teh Navy hospitals are staffed by civilian reserve doctors …who may be unable to report for duty due to pressing needs at home.
