The city’s mobile COVID-19 testing site reopened at St. Mary’s Cathedral in the Fillmore Friday, where anyone can get tested at Gough and Geary — regardless of symptoms — through at least June 13.
The pop-up site first spent two weeks in the Tenderloin. Verily, the company which operates the state-funded site, offered to continue running it there for another week — but community organizers decided it would be disrespectful to keep it open amid the George Floyd demonstrations and curfews that were sweeping the Bay Area.
Those protests, however, brought large numbers of people out onto the streets during a pandemic.
Mayor London Breed announced the new location in a tweet timed for its noon opening Friday, which was quickly followed by an AlertSF text message that went out citywide.
San Francisco supports peaceful public protests and we know that we need to continue to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Anyone participating in protests who wants to be tested can visit the Fillmore Pop-Up Testing Site for free testing.
More info: https://t.co/VMsxpuvzTL
— London Breed (@LondonBreed) June 5, 2020
Testing sites across San Francisco have varying criteria for who can receive a test.
Essential workers can be tested without symptoms and regardless of where they live. Residents can be tested if they’ve been in recent contact with someone who is COVID-positive or if they have one symptom including fatigue.
At other sites — such as the Verily site, even when it was located in the Tenderloin — no symptoms are required.
At the Fillmore site, online appointments are required at the Project Baseline website before showing up. Verily — which is owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet — also requires people being tested to have a Google account.
Veronica Vien, a Health Department spokeswoman, said 66 people were tested when the site opened Friday with a “soft launch.” The capacity is 400 people a day, and she said approximately 300 people have already signed up to be tested on Saturday and Sunday, each.
The site will be open every day (except Wednesday) from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. through June 13. The city has not yet said where the mobile site will be moved next.
If you would like to be tested for COVID-19, a list of testing locations can be found at sf.gov/GetTestedSF, or on the city’s interactive map.
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Thanks for continuing to post this kind of information. Find it disappointing that a person is required to have a Google account to get a test at a Verily site. Other than contact tracing, I’d love to know what kind of information is being collected, packaged, and sold all under the guise of a public health service.
I couldn’t agree more.