National City, which has experienced the highest rate of COVID-19 cases among San Diego County cities, will be ramping up testing efforts in response, the city's mayor said Wednesday.
Mayor Alejandra Sotelo-Solis said the city will be offering additional free testing and has received two new point-in-care testing devices at Paradise Valley Hospital.
Sotelo-Solis said details regarding the new testing would be forthcoming, but said it would allow residents to obtain both free testing and food through the city's emergency food distribution initiative launched last week.
Paradise Valley Hospital received its two testing devices from the county last week and started testing with the machines on Tuesday, CEO Nareev Jadeja said. Jadeja said the hospital is capable of running about 48 tests per day.
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Testing is only available at present for people exhibiting symptoms, according to Jadeja, who said the hospital is working with the county to acquire additional machines to expand testing for asymptomatic patients.
Testing is also being conducted by nonprofit San Ysidro Health, which has been testing around 25 people per day, according to CEO Kevin Mattson. He said testing has been ongoing for the past six weeks, with about 25% of those tested returning positive results.
Mattson said San Ysidro Health is looking forward to an expansion of testing sites and mobile testing that will allow for testing of asymptomatic patients.
Those seeking tests were also advised to call 211 to find their nearest testing site.
