About one-fourth of the 207 people who were tested on the first day of operation for the city of Hayward's new COVID-19 Testing Center on Monday had positive results for the novel coronavirus, city officials said Thursday.
The samples taken at the testing center at Hayward Fire Station No. 7 and analyzed at Avellino Labs in Menlo Park are retested and the results are immediately reported to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to the city.
Confirmed positive results also are shared immediately by Hayward Fire Department medical clinicians with the person found to have the infection and are reported by Hayward to public health officials in that person's county of residence.
Hayward officials said differing protocols in each county may mean that results from the Hayward testing center will be added to each county's aggregate confirmed case total in different ways and at different intervals.
The city said it plans to publicly report positive results about 48 hours after each day's testing, and is disclosing the information to help residents understand the prevalence of the coronavirus infection and reiterate the importance of complying with shelter-in-place orders and other social distancing hygiene precautions.
Of the 207 people who were tested on Monday, 54 were confirmed to have the coronavirus. An additional 460 people were tested on Tuesday but their results haven't yet been released, although Hayward and Avellino officials say it only takes six to nine hours to get test results.
City officials plan to have the testing center open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day, including weekends, and say they can process up to 370 samples a day. But they closed the center early on Wednesday because they ran out of testing capacity, Hayward city spokesman Chuck Finnie said.
Local
City officials said that on Thursday and possibly again on Friday, the number of tests at the center will be reduced and the center will close early to allow Hayward firefighter-paramedics testing teams to conduct testing of vulnerable populations elsewhere in the community.
