With COVID-19 testing by appointment now available to Humboldt County residents at Redwood Acres Fairgrounds in Eureka, here’s a bit more information on the process and what to expect.
Priority is given to people in high-risk groups and essential workers but others with mild or no symptoms can schedule a test online here or by calling (888) 634-1123, if they don’t have internet access.
“The more we test, the more we understand about how this virus is behaving in our county,” Humboldt County Public Health Officer Teresa Frankovich said in release earlier this week.
Those who have medical insurance will have their provider billed but there are no co-pays or other fees. For individuals without insurance, the test will be paid for by the state.
Watch the video below for a walk-through of the process and the testing.
This article appears in Toe in the Water.
Here’s what I experienced:
I was referred to a doctor by the Open Door Clinic and that doctor issued a written order for a Covid-19 test.
I took the order to the Open Door’s “tent” on Buhne Street in Eureka where no one was being tested and I was turned away and told to go to the “tent” at St. Joseph Hospital.
St. Joe’s “tent” was not in service and they sent me to Redwood Acres where, again, no one was being tested and I was told to call a phone # to make an appointment and I was turned away.
The phone # was for the “OPTUM SERVE” Co. that had 30-minutes of personal questions, including health insurance information and asked to “call me back later”! hours later I received an appointment weeks from now causing my doctor to delay an in-hospital procedure.
Little wonder suicide rates are up, including for healthcare workers, we’re 5 months into the crisis and this is still utter chaos.
Maybe it would relieve the growing tension if professionals, when publicly commenting on the epidemic, would acknowledge that a privatized healthcare system is completely incapable of adequate responses to any disaster.
Nothing could be more obvious this late in the pandemic.