FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Aisha Knowles
Public Affairs Manager
Fremont Fire Department
510-494-4291
[email protected]
Cheryl Golden
Communications Manager
City of Fremont
510-284-4025
[email protected]
Fremont to Open COVID-19 Testing Center
Fremont, Calif., April 2, 2020—On Friday, April 3, the City of Fremont will open a Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) testing site to provide an opportunity for people who are sick, first responders, and front line healthcare personnel with recent suspected exposures to the virus to be tested for free.
The Fremont Fire COVID-19 Testing Center, located at the Fremont Fire Tactical Training Center, 7200 Stevenson Blvd., was created to help alleviate the pressure on hospital emergency departments, provide faster test results for recently exposed first responders and front line healthcare workers, and to increase our community’s ability to suppress new transmissions through isolation after testing.
“Fremont’s new COVID-19 Testing Center is important to our city to ensure that our first responders, public safety personnel, and healthcare and essential service workers are protected when they’re on the frontlines serving our community; they need our support,” Mayor Lily Mei said. “We thank the City of Hayward for inviting Fremont to join its team, to better prepare ourselves as we roll out our own testing center. We’re all stronger when community partners come together to work on creating a solution.”
To receive a COVID-19 test, each person will be screened as part of a two-part testing process and must have a fever over 100 degrees and be symptomatic for COVID-19. Symptoms for COVID-19 include cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, persistent pain or pressure in the chest and/or other respiratory symptoms. A referral from a medical doctor is not required to be screened. After the initial screening process is completed, those individuals who meet the testing criteria will be administered the actual COVID-19 test which involves swabbing of the nasal cavities and back of the throat.
Testing at the Fremont Fire COVID-19 site will be organized using a drive-thru system and individuals seeking the test will need to remain inside a vehicle. No walk-up tests will be permitted.
To get to the Testing Center, vehicles should enter from westbound Stevenson Boulevard—then proceed to Eureka Drive and make a right turn northbound. Vehicles should then proceed forward on Eureka Drive and the line will be forming along the right curb. Access to the screening line is only available by vehicle and may be limited at times to provide for a safe and manageable traffic flow.
Although walk-up testing will not be available, we are working with a local health clinic to create a partnership that would allow for walk-up COVID-19 testing on an appointment-only basis.
First responders and healthcare workers who are symptomatic for the COVID-19 virus and have a temperature over 100 degrees may schedule a test in advance by calling (510) 789-7231.
The Fremont Fire COVID-19 Testing Center will be open daily from approximately 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. or until the maximum number of tests available for the day have been exhausted.
The tests are free to the public and available to anyone regardless of where they reside or their immigration status.
Staffing of the Fremont Fire COVID-19 Testing Center will be comprised of Fremont Fire Department Firefighter-Paramedics, Washington Hospital Registered Nurses, and United Ambulance Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs). The overall management of the Testing Center is in coordination with the Fremont Police Department and Newark Police Department.
The creation of the Fremont Fire COVID-19 Testing Center would not be possible were it not for a collaborative partnership with the City of Hayward, Hayward Fire Department, Hayward Firefighters International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) Local 1909, Fremont Firefighters IAFF Local 1689 and Avellino Lab USA, Inc., of Menlo Park, a global leader in gene therapy and molecular diagnostics.
For more information and updates on how the City of Fremont is monitoring the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), visit our Coronavirus webpage at www.Fremont.gov/Coronavirus. General updates will be made to the City’s social media accounts on Facebook, Nextdoor, Nixle, and Twitter; follow our channels at www.Fremont.gov/SocialMedia.
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Link to press release
