Have you been tested yet?
If you haven’t gotten a COVID-19 test in the past year, now’s a great time to start.
If you have, you should get tested again, and again, and again.
But don’t take our word for it. Dr. Sundari Mase, Sonoma County’s public health officer, is recommending a regular testing regiment, one that could vault us more quickly out of our current purple tier and back to normal.
“The way to get that transmission rate down is to find not only people who are symptomatic but those people who many not even know they have COVID and may be spreading it,” Mase said in an interview Friday. “It’s perfectly fine to go get a test if you haven’t been tested in the past month or so.”
We realize vaccines are all the rage, but testing – and the data that testing produces – are key elements in the state’s formula for allowing greater reopening freedoms for businesses and schools. Today, Sonoma County’s case rate is 14 cases per 100,000 residents, putting the county in the state’s most restrictive reopening tier - purple. That number needs to be cut in half before the county can move into the less restrictive red tier.
Testing can do that. Why? Because up to 40% of coronavirus cases don’t come with symptoms, making it harder for health officials to trace the pandemic’s ongoing spread in the community unless there’s a robust surveillance testing program in place. Health officials say we can cut our case rate in half with more testing, and reap the benefits through the state’s reopening framework.
“We are rewarded for doing the right thing,” Mase said.
Last fall, we were testing titans, with up to 700 of us taking COVID-19 tests each day. Naturally, that number has waned as focus has shifted to the vaccine. But we’re here to remind you to again make testing a priority.
They’re widely available through your health care provider and our community clinics, they can be obtained at drive-through sites like the Sonoma-Marin Fairgrounds in Petaluma or the Sonoma County Fairgrounds in Santa Rosa. And they’re free! Just call 888-634-1123 or go to socoemergency.org to book your test today.
Along with social distancing, mask wearing and other safety precautions, testing provides a free, easy way for Petalumans to help get our city, our schools, our lives back open. We can make it happen. Schedule a test, once per month, through the summer. With more data, we can shift the local pandemic paradigm.
We know it can be a pain. But just remember, every time you get tested, you’re helping brighten the light at the end of the tunnel for our community, and our small businesses. And hey, as a reward, you could always stop by one of our amazing small businesses for a treat after your test.
We’re at the home stretch, Petaluma. We can do this!