At a press conference this morning at PAL Stadium, the City of San José, the County of Santa Clara, and the company Verily issued an announcement that cost-free testing for COVID-19 is now available to all county residents, regardless of whether or not one is symptomatic, at PAL Stadium and the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds.
On hand to speak were Sam Liccardo, Mayor of San Jose; Cindy Chavez, Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors President; John Propst, Head of COVID-19 Testing Operations, Verily; Dr. Marty Fenstersheib, County of Santa Clara COVID-19 Testing Officer; Magdelena Carrasco, San Jose Councilmember District 5; and Lan Diep, San Jose Councilmember District 4.
“Today we are making history in making sure that this health crisis doesn’t continue to impact one of the most vulnerable communities, not only in San Jose, but in the entire county,” said Carrasco.
Liccardo mentioned that they can handle 300 tests a day at PAL Stadium as well as the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds. Santa Clara County is trying to reach their goal of testing 4,000 a day, but are currently testing between 1,000 and 2,000 a day.
Testing takes only a few minutes, and is appointment-only so as to ensure that people are in and out quickly. Current testing hours are Monday-Friday, from 9am-3pm.
Verily is owned by Google parent company Alphabet, and is working in collaboration with the State of California to provide the free testing, which is not available to people below the age of 18.
A Baseline COVID-19 Program online screener and appointment scheduling system is available in both English and Spanish on the Project Baseline website. There, people can input their symptoms and make testing appointments.
More info on testing sites and doctors’ recommended reasons to get tested is available here.
