Los Angeles expands COVID-19 testing to all essential workers, regardless of symptoms
All essential workers in Los Angeles will be able to receive tests for the coronavirus starting Thursday, even if they are asymptomatic. (Jintak Han/Daily Bruin senior staff)
By Julia Shapero
April 22, 2020 7:34 p.m.
Los Angeles will offer coronavirus testing to all essential workers, both with and without symptoms, starting Thursday.
LA Mayor Eric Garcetti announced Wednesday that asymptomatic health care professionals, grocery store workers, first responders, critical government personnel and other essential workers will now also be able to receive tests for the coronavirus.
Workers should contact their employers to learn how to obtain the priority testing at one of 34 testing sites in the city of LA and LA County, Garcetti said.
“We wish we could open that up to everybody, but I think we all know that we have firefighters and police officers, doctors, nurses, janitors at hospitals, folks that are in grocery stores and pharmacies that are putting themselves out on the line, and we want to make sure that they are healthy,” Garcetti said at his daily press conference.
LA County saw 1,318 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday alone, bringing the total to 16,435 cases. There were also 66 coronavirus-related deaths in the county, for a total of 729 deaths.
