Dr. Frankovich addresses public concern regarding inability to schedule COVID-19 test

EUREKA, Calif. (KIEM) – Recently, many residents have raised concern about the inability to schedule a COVID-19 testing appointment at the Redwood Acres OptumServe site.

According to Public Health Officer Dr. Teresa Frankovich, OptumServe appointments are released two weeks in advance.

Therefore, appointments are not going to be unavailable in the near future. It just means that the next set of appointments are not accessible at this point in time.

Dr. Frankovich says, with limitations arising due to turn around times reaching eight days and unavailable appointments, the county is exploring alternatives to try to steer from lengthy surveillance testing and contact tracing procedures.

She adds that the county is endlessly working on increasing testing capacity. Additional equipment for the county lab has been ordered and options for restructuring the type of testing that is currently offered through Optum, is being explored.