Hayward Drive-Up Testing Site Moved Due To Long Lines, Congestion
HAYWARD (KPIX) – After weeks of traffic and long lines, Hayward's first come, first served COVID-19 testing site is now by appointment only and no longer at the same site.
The line that has circled around Cal State East Bay to get necessary coronavirus testing for a month has moved and changed. The new location is a parking lot between Skywest Golf Course and Hayward Executive Airport.
"Cars were lining up going all the way down Mission Boulevard which is probably a couple miles away. So the wait times were really bad, so what this does is cuts down on the wait time on the traffic," said Don Nichelson of Hayward Fire.
The new Hayward site will still conduct roughly 500 tests a day.
While testing is increasing for the virus, key indicators around the virus' spread are in modest decline statewide. More than 5700 positive cases were reported over the weekend, but 7-day averages are down 21 percent.
Also dropping is the positivity rate of those tests which is hovering around 7 percent from a high of nearly 8 percent.
"It's not where it needs to be - it's still too high but again, it's good to see this number trending down and not trending up," Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a news conference Monday.
Also down is the number of COVID-19 cases that require hospitalization. Hospital admissions are down 10 percent and ICU admissions are down 5 percent.
Governor Newsom said despite the downward trend, vigilance is still needed.
"Another few weeks of data to come in, the good news is that we do feel confident where we are as a state," said Newsom.
