Updated 8:45 p.m., Tuesday, May 24.

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• Where can I find a COVID test near me?
• How soon after possible exposure should I get tested?
• How can I get free at-home COVID test kits?

Over 75% of Californians are now fully vaccinated, and over 58% have received their COVID booster shot.

But widespread breakthrough infections in fully vaccinated people and the recent rise in COVID case numbers around the Bay Area are a reminder that COVID testing remains crucial to ending this pandemic.

Health experts stress that getting tested for COVID, even when fully vaccinated, is an effective way to stop the spread of the coronavirus faster. But what if you're struggling to find a timely COVID test in the Bay Area — especially when you need the results as soon as possible — or accessing a free appointment?

Keep reading for how to find a COVID test near you, and your options depending on your reason for getting tested.

One big thing to know: Finding a test if you’re uninsured became a little more complex a few months ago. In late March, the federal program that’s been funding COVID testing and care for people without health insurance ended — and in several cases, testing sites that previously offered free COVID tests to people without insurance stopped doing so. This means that if you're uninsured, unfortunately it's now extra important to check that the testing site you want to use still offers free tests for those without insurance.

The good news is that your local county testing site most likely will not be affected by that federal funding change, and still will be able to offer you a free test without insurance. Uninsured people have other free testing options, too: Look for the asterisks (*) in our list of COVID testing providers around the Bay Area to find them.

Where to find a COVID PCR test in the Bay Area

If you're looking for COVID-19 testing in the Bay Area, you have several options — and for many testing sites, you still don’t need health insurance.

Unless otherwise noted, testing sites use nasal or oral swabs to determine whether you have the virus — not an antibody (serology) blood-based test to determine whether you've been exposed.

Most sites require appointments, and test results should be available within three days. If you need results sooner, be sure to select a rapid test.

Don't have health insurance? Look out for the asterisks (*) below for the testing options most likely to be free for uninsured people.

Find a COVID test through your health care provider

If you have health insurance and get health care through a regular provider, such as Kaiser Permanente, you may find it easiest to get a COVID test through that provider.

Log into your provider's website or app and look for COVID testing options to make an appointment.

You may find that certain providers offer testing to nonmembers. For example, Sutter Health's California Pacific Medical Center says it can schedule tests for nonmembers as long as they have an order for the test from their physician.

Find a COVID test through the state's map*

For a complete list of COVID testing providers throughout California, use the state's map that says it shows all public and private COVID testing providers.

The state says that free testing is "available at select clinics" using this tool, and recommends you look for the word "free" next to the clinic's name.

Find a COVID test through Test to Treat*

As the name "Test to Treat" implies, these locations allow you to get tested for COVID and potentially treated for it by being prescribed COVID antivirals on-site. See a list of Test to Treat sites near you on the State of California's map tool.

When you input your city or ZIP code in the Test to Treat locator map, look under "Locations with testing, medical visits, and medication (Test-to-Treat)" to find a testing location, not "Locations to fill a prescription."

The state says that services at Optum Serve Test to Treat sites are free to uninsured people. (This refers to those Test to Treat sites run by Optum Serve, which is the federal health services business of Optum and UnitedHealth Group.) If you're uninsured and you visit a Test to Treat location that isn't run by Optum Serve, you could potentially find yourself asked to pay costs out of pocket.

If you're uninsured and using the Test to Treat locator map to find a site, make sure you look specifically for the locations that say "Optum Serve." You can also find only Optum Serve testing locations using the Optum Serve map online.

Find a COVID test through a pharmacy*

Spokespeople for CVS and Walgreens have confirmed that as of May 2022, COVID testing at their stores is still free for people without insurance.

Still, be extra-sure to check the billing details when making an appointment for a COVID test, especially if you're uninsured.

• CVS COVID testing
• Walgreens COVID testing
• Rite Aid COVID testing

Walgreens has also announced a new program that offers free PCR test kits for pickup in-store or curbside, no insurance required. These test kits are for your use at home, where you'll swab yourself following the kit instructions and then mail the sample to a lab using the prepaid shipping box. Walgreens says results will be emailed to you 1–2 days after your sample is received at the lab.

Check whether a Walgreens store near you has supplies of these free PCR test kits. (We recommend trying different ZIP codes, for a higher chance of finding a store with availability.)

Find a COVID test through your Bay Area county*

The Bay Area county where you live, work or study will offer you a COVID test through their public health department. If you are uninsured, most county testing sites can still offer you a test.

Use the links below to find community testing sites in your area.

• Alameda County COVID tests
• City of Berkeley COVID tests
• Contra Costa County COVID tests
• Marin County COVID tests
• Napa County COVID tests
• San Francisco County COVID tests
• San Mateo County COVID tests
• Santa Clara County COVID tests
• Solano County COVID tests
• Sonoma County COVID tests

Find a COVID test through your school district*

If your child attends a public school in the Bay Area, or if you're a school district employee, you may find that COVID testing is offered through that school district. For example, Oakland Unified School District offers COVID testing for all its staff, including employees, contractors and volunteers. Students and OUSD family members also are eligible.

Find a COVID test through one of these providers

If you are uninsured, you might find that the testing site down the street from you has stopped offering free tests to people without health coverage. That's because private providers can no longer claim the costs of testing uninsured folks for COVID from the federal government. But different testing providers are handling this in different ways.

Some sites may continue offering free COVID tests to those without insurance, whereas others may now ask you to pay an out-of-pocket fee to get a test if you don’t have health insurance. Some testing sites may have made changes to their eligibility criteria for uninsured people. (Read more about how different sites have handled the changes.)

In short: Always check the billing details when making an appointment, especially if you're uninsured. And if you do have health coverage, make sure to ask the test provider how they will bill the cost of the test to your insurance company. Insurance companies are required to cover the full cost of COVID-19 tests done at testing sites.

Test the People COVID testing

• Sites in Oakland and San Francisco

COVID Clinic COVID testing

• Sites in South San Francisco (for SFO Airport), San Mateo, Palo Alto, San José, Oakland (Fruitvale), Hayward, Pleasanton and Pleasant Hill

Fulgent Genetics COVID testing

• Sites in Oakland and Hayward

Carbon Health COVID testing

• Multiple sites in San Francisco, plus Oakland, Berkeley, San Leandro, San José and San Mateo

Color COVID testing

• Sites in Oakland, San Francisco and Fairfield

Curative COVID testing

• Multiple sites around the Bay Area

Virus Geeks COVID testing

• Sites in San Francisco, San Mateo, Redwood City, Woodside, Portola Valley and Foster City

LHI/OptumServe COVID testing

• Sites around the Bay Area

CityHealth COVID testing

• Sites in San Francisco, Oakland, Livermore, Dublin, El Cerrito and San José

Stanford Health Care COVID testing

• Sites in Redwood City, San José, Palo Alto, Emeryville and Livermore (open to the public as well as Stanford Health patients)

Total Testing Solutions

• Site in Santa Clara

These results may be duplicated on your county's public health website (see above).

Using a COVID self-test at home

The CDC advises that while a negative result from a home COVID test "indicates that you may not be infected," it "does not rule out an infection." It's therefore recommended that you repeat the test for certainty, especially if you're getting tested to be able to attend an event.

Doing two or more tests over several days with at least 24 hours between tests — with one test as close as possible to the event you're hoping to attend — "improves the reliability of testing and reduces your risk of transmitting disease to others even further," says the CDC.

There are many types of home COVID testing kits available. One of the most well-known is the BinaxNOW COVID-19 Antigen Self Test. If you suspect you've been exposed to COVID, or are experiencing symptoms and are quarantining yourself to avoid risking exposure for others, you might consider asking a friend or community member to purchase a COVID home testing kit for you, or to use the services of a delivery company from a pharmacy like CVS or Walgreens.

How to get free or low-cost at-home COVID tests

The cost to diagnose COVID-19 is an eligible medical expense for tax purposes, which means you can use your health flexible spending account (health FSA), health savings account (HSA), health reimbursement arrangement (HRA), or Archer medical savings account (Archer MSA) to pay for or get reimbursed for an at-home COVID test kit.

You can now order up to 16 free at-home COVID-19 tests online from the federal government and the United States Postal Service. The tests and shipping are completely free of charge. Read more about how to order free tests through USPS.

As of Jan. 15, people with private health insurance also can get reimbursed by their insurer for the cost of up to eight at-home COVID tests per month.

This program applies only to at-home tests purchased on or after Jan. 15, and covers eight free tests per covered individual per month. "That means a family of four, all on the same plan, would be able to get 32 of these tests covered by their health plan per month," confirmed the White House.

Read more about getting reimbursed for at-home COVID tests through your health insurer, if you have one.

How soon should I get tested?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that if you get a known exposure to someone with confirmed or suspected COVID, you should get tested at least five days after that last exposure.

According to a CDC study, the omicron variant appears to move even faster, with an incubation of roughly three days. But if you choose to test earlier than five days from an exposure, don't take an early negative result as definitive proof you don't have COVID. Keep testing, to be sure you're not infectious and inadvertently spreading COVID to others.

The CDC also recommends you wear a mask in public indoor settings for 14 days or until you receive a negative test result.

If you were in close contact with someone with COVID but have tested negative five days after exposure, the CDC says that even if you're likely not infected, "an infection cannot be completely ruled out" and you should follow their quarantine and isolation guidance, which includes monitoring yourself for symptoms and wearing a well-fitting mask.

Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, professor of medicine and an infectious disease specialist at UCSF, stresses that the timing of your exposure definitely matters for whether you get a test, and when. If you’ve been in close contact with someone with a COVID diagnosis (that means you were together, unmasked, for more than 15 minutes and less than six feet apart), "we usually start thinking of exposure as around two days before the diagnosis of the friend," Chin-Hong said.

"For example, if somebody went to a party with somebody five days ago, but then didn't hang out with that person since five days ago, but that person got diagnosed two days ago, they wouldn't need to worry about it," Chin-Hong said.

If you're getting tested to travel internationally, be sure to check the rules for that specific country, as they may have recently changed due to the omicron variant. Also, be sure of the time frames required to test for international travel, and be careful of time limits expressed in calendar days vs. hours (for example, "two days before your flight" rather than "48 hours before your flight").

Yes, getting a COVID test is still important if you're vaccinated

We now know that breakthrough COVID infections — when a fully vaccinated person tests positive for the coronavirus — aren't as rare as we once thought.

But these cases are still very unlikely to result in hospitalization or death — which is the whole point of a vaccine against disease. So if you get COVID when you're vaccinated, your mind might be less on your personal health risks and more on the danger of spreading it to others, Chin-Hong says.

"As a vaccinated person, you are very unlikely to go to the hospital, get in a breathing tube and die," Chin-Hong says. "What I can tell you is you potentially could transmit it to others."

Knowing with certainty that you are not infected, he stresses, can make a huge difference for those who are much more vulnerable to the coronavirus — like children under 5 who aren't yet eligible for a vaccine, or the immunocompromised — especially over holidays, where gathering with friends and family is common.

"Knowledge is power,” Chin-Hong says. “Not knowing you have [COVID-19] is much worse than knowing you have it." And if your test comes back positive, you can then let those with whom you’ve been in close contact know so they also can get tested and take preventive measures.

"You may break the chain of transmission," Chin-Hong said.

A reminder of COVID symptoms to watch out for

As of November, the CDC recommends you keep an eye out for symptoms of COVID including:

• Fever or chills
• Cough
• Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
• Fatigue
• Muscle or body aches
• Headache
• New loss of taste or smell
• Sore throat
• Congestion or runny nose
• Nausea or vomiting
• Diarrhea

Sneezing also is now being seen among some fully vaccinated folks as a COVID-19 symptom.

"Sneezing hadn’t been seen before until delta, among vaccinated folks," Chin-Hong explains. He notes that sneezing could be mistaken for allergies or a mild cold, which could dissuade folks from getting tested. But it’s best to be completely sure of your own status, he said.

Fully vaccinated people may avoid the worst symptoms thanks to the vaccine, "but in the meantime, you probably are exposing a lot of other people to COVID-19 unknowingly," he said.

The CDC's website has a symptoms self-checker, which you can use to gauge whether your symptoms could be COVID.

A version of this story was originally published on Dec. 10, 2021. KQED's Matthew Green and Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí contributed to this story.