Coachella Valley Leaders Get Tested for COVID-19

On Wednesday at the Riverside County Fairgrounds in Indio  leaders from across the Coachella Valley  practiced what they’ve preaching: get tested for coronavirus.

“We are demonstrating by example to the public that we like for you all to be tested even if you don’t feel any symptoms,” said Riverside County Supervisor V. Manuel Perez, who represents the fourth district and is also board chair.

Perez was first in a long line of cars for the free county tests now available to anyone.  

“All the way out and really what I‘m looking for is that little gag reflex,” said a nurse as she swabbed his throat. 

“Wow … alright we got it done,” said Perez as he laughed admitting that it was uncomfortable.  

The Mayor of La Quinta Linda Evans got tested too. The nurse told her she did a “beautiful” job getting tested.

Evans says she’s proud of the city’s employees who had the most employees tested of any city in the valley.

“And it’s just another way for us to share with our residents that we are taking COVID-19 seriously, we recognize the need for safety,” she says.

Palm Springs represented too.

Mayor Geoff Kors said this test is a must, “Because that will help us safely reopen more businesses … I want to make sure I‘m not asymptomatic and risk infecting anyone else.” 

In a study just released by JAMA, they found 42 percent of positive cases from a group of people in Wuhan, China, were asymptomatic, meaning they had the virus, showed no symptoms and could spread it to others. That’s why experts say testing is the key to containing the virus.

And that is the message, anyone can get tested and should. 

Perez says this virus and effort to test, quarantine the sick and contact trace must be taken seriously, “This is not over,” adding that it’s something we must do together with the reopening of businesses in order to make full recovery, “we need to do everything we possibly can to make sure that we have a parallel effort that we’re fighting the pandemic and we suppress it and at the same time recover economically.”

County testing is free. Appointments are encouraged. Same day appointments are available.

For the location nearest you click here: COVID-19 Testing