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San Francisco Expands Free Testing For Workers and Residents

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San Francisco Mayor London Breed has made coronavirus testing more widely available to thousands of local residents and workers.

At a press conference on Wednesday, she teamed up with Public Health Director Dr. Grant Colfax to announce that a city-run test site on Piers 30-32 will now be open to all essential workers who are experiencing symptoms of COVID-19, as well as any resident who has no access to testing elsewhere.

"Your immigration status or lack of insurance: nothing should be a barrier to you getting tested," said Mayor Breed. She added that the category of essential workers "Does not only mean people who work in the health care industry or in public safety -- it also means our grocery store clerks, our janitors."

San Francisco has made testing available to city-employed workers for several weeks. A growing number of community clinics have also been opening to neighborhood residents who require testing. There are 26 testing sites open across the city, according to Dr. Colfax. But testing supplies remain scarce, and not everyone who requests a test can get one.

"My vision is that everyone in San Francisco has universal access to testing," he said on Wednesday. "Today, anyone with any symptom consistent with COVID-19, or anyone in close contact with a COVID-19 case, even if they do not have symptoms, will be eligible for testing."

According to city officials, symptoms of COVID-19 are defined as fever, unexplained cough, sore throat, shortness of breath, chills, headache, body aches, fatigue, diarrhea, runny nose, congestion, and loss of sense of smell or taste.

Call 311 to be screened for testing.

--Julia Scott (@juliascribe)

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