COVID-19 testing sites help Sonoma County residents manage risk from wildfire evacuations

Aug. 25--A lunchtime rush created a steady flow of vehicles at a pop-up COVID-19 testing site in Windsor on Tuesday, nearly spilling into the street for the diagnostic screening aimed to detect the coronavirus and curb its spread amid evacuations connected with the Walbridge and Meyers fires.

Sonoma County health officials warned this week that the wildfires, which forced more than 11,000 people from their homes at its peak and placed another 30,000 in the vicinity under evacuation warnings, could result in an uptick in local coronavirus cases. A shelter with limited capacity opened at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds, but many evacuees chose to seek shelter with friends or relatives -- leading to the kind of close-quarters interactions that authorities have been advising against for months.

Elvia Vega, her husband, Rogelio, and their four adolescent children quickly left their rental home on Sweetwater Springs Road just west of Healdsburg on Tuesday afternoon before an evacuation warning became a mandatory order. They headed to Elvia's sister's house in Santa Rosa rather than a hotel, and have been hoping for the best as the family continues to track the flames that have each day drawn closer to the property they've caretaken for more than a decade.

The Vega family also was forced to evacuate during last year's Kincade fire. The coronavirus adds a new complication this time around while trying to keep the kids active in a variety of distance-learning programs and everyone healthy, leading the family to plan a visit to another of the free pop-up testing sites Tuesday night in Healdsburg.

"It provides peace of mind, since we've been out and about and are not in our normal routine of life," said Elvia Vega, 35. "We're healthy and have no concern of COVID being here. It's just for reassurance, since we've been out of our house ... just to ensure that we're OK."

Local nonprofit groups worry that more vulnerable populations, including local Latino residents, could face outsized impacts from the dual crises -- the pandemic and the wildfires. Latinos account for about 27% of Sonoma County's population, but make up 70% of the positive COVID-19 cases where the ethnicity of people is known, according to the county's coronavirus records.

Farmworkers and other laborers in the agricultural industry -- many if not most of whom are Latino -- also represent at least 10% of Sonoma County's confirmed coronavirus cases, according to the dataset. Those groups, many of whom do not possess health insurance, also make up a large portion of Corazón Healdsburg's clients, underscoring the need for free testing services, said Lizbeth Perez, the nonprofit's programs manager.

Such concerns led Corazón to organize the two-day testing program in the north county, which included stops in Windsor and Healdsburg on Tuesday, and continues Wednesday with sites in Cloverdale and Geyserville. Windsor-based nonprofit Nuestra Comunidad is giving away 2,000 free N95 masks to those driving through for screenings.

"We are already at a disadvantage before the fire hit with the disproportionate number of COVID cases in the county," said Alma Bowen, executive director of Nuestra Comunidad. "Throw on top of that we have the fire and the many evacuations, and it makes them even more vulnerable, fleeing to be with other family members and throwing any caution related to COVID to the wind, because right now we do not have real evacuation centers."

The smoky air could contribute to a rising number of cases as well, said Dr. Sundari Mase, Sonoma County's health officer. Sneezing and coughing from people breathing in ash, asymptomatic carriers among them, are worsened and could lead to more cases, she said.

"They may now have the symptoms of cough and be more likely to spread COVID," Mase said Monday. "The best option is to remain indoors and go outside only for essential activities. Limit socializing with people outside of your own household."

Curative, a Southern California-based COVID-19 testing startup, is overseeing the diagnostic tests, which are saliva based, a less invasive method that in April received U.S. Food and Drug Administration emergency approval. The company touts the self-administered test as more accessible than others that take samples from deep in the nasal cavity, and with results in 24 to 48 hours for tens of thousands of patients each day.

Growing demand across the nation for coronavirus tests led to long turnaround times for results as recently as a few weeks ago -- a factor in less effective tracking of the virus, Mase said last month. Lately, the turnaround times have narrowed on in-county tests to no more than 72 hours, according to a lab partner, a county spokesman said Tuesday.

Still, the speed and accuracy of coronavirus testing during the wildfires can't be emphasized enough, said Perez, Corazón Healdsburg's programs manager.

"If people who have an expectation of having COVID don't know yet because they're waiting on results, and other people who think they're healthy are sheltering together ... then that's not a good process for evacuations and how to move the people," Perez said. "It's so important to identify people who have to be on quarantine. We don't want to have more new cases just because other people don't have access to the testing."

You can reach Staff Writer Kevin Fixler at 707-521-5336 or kevin.fixler@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @kfixler.

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