What to Know
- LA's new COVID-19 testing super-site will be open Tuesdays through Saturdays at San Fernando Recreation Park in San Fernando.
- The hours will be 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- Up to 500 flu vaccines will also be available per day at the site.
Long lines formed early Tuesday at a new walk-up COVID-19 testing supersite that opened at a park in the northern San Fernando Valley.
The site will operate from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays at San Fernando Recreation Park in San Fernando. It is the 10th location where symptomatic and non-symptomatic Los Angeles County residents can get a free coronavirus test, according to Mayor Eric Garcetti's office.
Click here to find a City of Los Angeles testing site near you.
Up to 3,000 people per day will be able to be tested at the site, which will soon be added to the city's antigen testing pilot program. Early Tuesday, a line formed from the entrance gate through a driveway and down Fourth Street past Parkside Drive.
San Fernando Park is located about four miles from the drive-thru site at Hansen Dam, and city officials hope the new site will provide testing for Angelenos in the area who do not have access to a vehicle. The city uses weekly case numbers, demand, positivity rates and testing site capability to determine where to open testing sites.
Infection rates in the east San Fernando Valley are up to six times higher than other parts of the city.
Los Angeles County is once again prohibiting dining at restaurants and bars beginning Wednesday due to a recent spike in COVID-19. The rise in cases brought the five-day average of new cases to more than 4,000, health officials said Sunday.
Up to 500 flu vaccines will also be available per day at the site, and in the weeks ahead, the site will be added to the city's ongoing rapid antigen testing pilot, which will deliver COVID-19 test results within minutes to the program's participants.
Garcetti announced the additional testing site at a news conference last week.
“Testing remains an essential tool in stopping the spread of COVID-19, tracking the virus, and saving lives -- and we will continue to deploy our vital testing resources where the data and science tell us they will do the most good,'' Garcetti said in a statement Friday. “Our new San Fernando Park site will deliver critical support to a community hit hard by this pandemic, and ensure Valley residents know their status and take the necessary steps to protect themselves and those around them.''
Coronavirus Deaths in Your City and State — and Across the US
These charts use daily coronavirus death data from Johns Hopkins University to show the seven-day moving average of deaths at the city, state and country level.
The impact of coronavirus varies enormously in the United States from one place to another.
Source: Johns Hopkins University.
Credit: Visuals by Amy O’Kruk/NBC, data analysis by Ron Campbell/NBC
The site will be part of an ongoing collaboration between Garcetti's office, its lab partner Curative, the non-profit Community Organized Relief Effort and the Los Angeles Fire Department. The partnership has created one of the nation's largest municipal testing programs, and over 2.24 million people have been tested.
Curative's oral fluid swab tests provide results in about 24 to 48 hours, the company said.
The city can test more than 38,000 people a day across its testing sites. Information on the city's testing program is available here.
