Supervisors Vote On More Coronavirus Testing

ORANGE COUNTY, CA — The Orange County Board of Supervisors voted Wednesday to adopt the California Department of Public Health guidelines for expanded COVID-19 testing and to direct county staff to ramp up efforts to test more residents.

As of Wednesday, more tests have become available, and state house members want answers as to why there are disparities in testing between Orange County and other counties.

California recently updated its guidelines on testing, due to the availability of more tests. The state has created guidelines for two tiers for testing.

Tier 1:
Tier 1 applies to hospitalized patients, health care workers, first responders, and social service employees, whether they are sick or asymptomatic.

It also applies to residents 65 or older whether they are ill or not, or anyone with chronic medical conditions that make them vulnerable to coronavirus.

The first tier also expands testing in skilled nursing and congregant facilities and for frontline workers in grocery stores and utilities.

Tier 2:
The second tier is for lower-risk people who do not have symptoms. Being able to test people without symptoms may provide a more accurate picture as to the nature of spread in the county.

Wagner questioned why the county should be ramping up testing when there does not appear to be a high demand for it.

Residents who feel they need testing need to reach out to Orange County Health Care, or to their personal physician.

"I'm not sure what this adds to our debate or how this helps out our citizens when we already have three times the number of tests available today," that is in use, Wagner said.

Supervisor Andrew Do, who is on the ad-hoc testing committee with Supervisor Doug Chaffee, said expanded testing would be particularly useful in reaching out to the "underserved communities" where the outbreaks are highest.

Do said a UC Irvine study showed that the virus has been prolific among Latinos in particular.

"Until now, the testing for those communities has been very low," Do said. "So, this is more of a focus on our effort in terms of outreach."

County officials have been recently offering testing in community clinics, Do said.

All of Orange County's House members sent a letter to Orange County Health Care's new Director Clayton Chau expressing "concerns" regarding "disparities" in testing between Orange County and other counties.

The House members asked for a meeting with Chau, who just started work last week.

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