Hayward COVID-19 Testing Center reaches milestone—10,000 tests administered

HAYWARD, Calif., May 27, 2020—The COVID-19 Testing Center established by the Hayward Fire Department reached a new milestone on Tuesday, administering its 10,000th test for infection with the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 disease.

Launched on March 23 at Fire Station 7 in South Hayward and relocated to Cal State University East Bay on April 14, the Center was created to take pressure off hospital emergency rooms, provide quicker answers for health-care workers and first-responders who have been exposed to the virus, and to help control community spread of the disease.

Today, mobile teams of specifically trained Hayward firefighter-paramedics also provide COVID-19 testing of residents and employees of nursing homes, at police departments, and for people who are experiencing homelessness or otherwise in need.

Testing at the Center is free and available on a first-come, first-served basis to anyone with a fever over 100 degrees or other COVID-19 symptoms, regardless of income, place of residence or immigration status.  No physician referral is required.

Test samples are analyzed by Avellino Lab in Menlo Park, with results usually available within six hours or by the next morning.

The Center is open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday or until the available number of tests for the day is exhausted.  Health-care workers and first-responders can make advance appointments for testing by calling the City’s COVID-19 Hotline at (510) 583-4949.

On May 14, the City announced new partnerships with the Eden Health District, the nonprofit organization La Familia and Cal State East Bay to help sustain the Testing Center.

Under the partnerships, Eden Health is providing funding to pay for test kits and lab analysis, La Familia agreed to employ health-care workers to begin collecting samples at the Center and Cal State is supplying recent graduates of its nursing program to bolster the site’s staffing levels.

Through Tuesday, the Hayward Center had administered 10,049 tests, accounting for about 20 percent of all COVID-19 testing in Alameda County.

Approximately five percent of individuals tested for the first time at the Center or by its mobile teams had a positive test result, meaning they were determined to be infected with the COVID-19 contagion.

People who test positive are asked to return weekly for follow-up testing to monitor their progress.  Of those individuals, 69 percent eventually tested negative, meaning they were determined to be no longer infected with the coronavirus.