A new COVID-19 check – free, no appointment – quietly opened the inside of a cavernous exhibition corridor at Ventura County Exhibition Park on Thursday morning.
The no-appointment site, administered by the Ventura County Health Care Agency, is open to all county residents. It is open from nine a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday. The control center is located in San Miguel Hall, one of Quonset’s two giant beachfront huts. The front is through Gate 2 of Shoreline Drive.
The new verification site can treat about 1,000 more people a day, said Linda Bays, director of the fitness care agency. On Thursday morning, with little exposure in advance, there is no queue.
With the opening of the new Exhibition Park site, ventura College’s existing center will close on Friday, Bays said. Other sites at Oxnard College, Moorpark College and Santa Paula at the Ford dealership at 128 S. Hallock Drive will remain open, he said.
Editor’s Note: The Star makes this story loose for readers due to coronavirus-like public fitness issues. Please, a virtual subscription to The Star so that we can continue to do this vital work.
At FairGrounds, citizens who show up for a check will first be searched in a white tent outside the San Miguel Hall. A device long in a small pill takes its temperature and makes sure it wears a mask.
Your temperature reading appears on the screen. They will be asked a few questions and issued a paper ticket, which are used on a DMV site, with a letter and numbers: B101, for example.
The interior of the hangar has been furnished with ornaments that look like old-school and period. The rows of white plastic chairs are arranged in socially remote periods like a waiting room in a giant garage.
A giant video screen features the price tickets that are later called; an electronic voice announces the number via an intercom, directing the price ticket holder to one of the many numbered stations in the look of the room. There, a qualified assistant, a plexiglass barrier, guides the user through a self-administered swab test.
The effects take three to five days, Bays said, and are transmitted electronically by SMS or email.
More about coronavirus: Student schedules generate questions and frustration in Rabbit Valley Unified School District
On Thursday morning, locating the county check can be confusing, as there are now two COVID-19 control centers at the fairgrounds: the county and a personal facility.
Signs on the corner of the main parking lot on Harbor Boulevard and Figueroa Street directed motorists to the personal site, available on Garden Street from Thompson Boulevard. The personal site is controlled through the Huntington Beach-based COVID Clinic. The company’s test, which costs $150 and requires an appointment, gives quick results.
Tony Deleo, a Ventura resident, stumbled upon the county site through the possibility Thursday morning. He looked for waves and saw the sign, he said.
“If things make things easier, more people will be tested,” Deleo said as the procedure began in the white outdoor tent in the lobby.
Inside, Irene Johnson of Ventura completing her trial. He heard about the loose radio tests. Johnson said she had an 85-year-old friend who insisted that anyone who wanted to be near her get tested.
On Wednesday, some 8,790 county citizens tested positive for coronavirus since the first local case reported on March 6.
Gretchen Wenner covers the newest in Ventura County Star. Contact her at [email protected] or 805-437-0270.