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Advancing Community wellness in the Coachella Valley

District Board calls special meeting April 3 to provide rapid Covid-19 tests

More than 10,000 tests for Covid-19 with a vastly quicker turnaround time for test results may soon be available in the Coachella Valley.

 

The Desert Healthcare District and Foundation Board of Directors will have a special meeting (by phone) at 3 p.m. Friday, April 3, to consider allocating $350,000 for rapid tests. Unlike current tests that take 2 to 5 days to produce a result, these new tests would reveal the result in 15 minutes.

 

Current tests also are limited in supply across the valley. If approved by the Board, our community could be using the additional 10,606 rapid tests by the end of next week.

 

Dr. Conrado Bárzaga, Desert Healthcare District and Foundation CEO, said the plan would be to distribute the rapid test kits to the healthcare safety net, including Borrego Health, Clinicas de Salud del Pueblo and Desert AIDS Project, to "emphasize access to care for traditionally underrepresented/underserved communities which are facing more challenges during this pandemic."

 

To learn more, please call in and listen during the 3 p.m. April 3 meeting. The dail-in number is (877) 304-9269 followed by the 594808# passcode. Read the meeting agenda and packet here.

 

 

Please direct questions to Will Dean, director of communications and marketing, at wdean@dhcd.org.

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