Humboldt County to ramp up Covid-19 testing thanks to new partnership

HUMBOLDT COUNTY, Calif. (KIEM) — The county will soon be able to administer and process close to 9,000 Covid-19 tests a month thanks to efforts by the North Coast Regional Testing Partnership.

The ramped up testing should be available starting this fall and is made possible through a partnership between United Indian Health Services, Del Norte and Humboldt counties, Humboldt State University, tribal communities, as well as a contract between the State and PerkinElmer.

PerkinElmer will lend additional testing equipment and reagents, which will be set up at the UIHS lab in Arcata. Once up and running, tests will be processed at either the Public Health or UIHS lab. HSU has also donated a biosafety cabinet to the lab and is creating an internship for students to work in the lab.

According to Public Health lab manager Jeremy Corrigan, the goal is to ensure all residents are able to access testing, particularly residents who are often underserved.