County's Free At-Home PCR Test Program Halted

January 6, 2022 - Last week, Dr. Dr. Barbara Ferrer, Director of Public Health, announced a program where residents could order free PCR tests to administer at home and send to the lab for results. Today, during her weekly press conference, she announced that program is paused.

"They were running into challenges with the vendor," Ferrer explained. They were having trouble getting deliveries to homes in time. Members of the press at the virtual conference said they knew of people who'd been waiting weeks for a test that had been promised within 3-5 days.

Ferrer, who'd last week encouraged residents to stay home if they are feeling sick, was forced to change that recommendations today. She said the department handling the take-home tests was switching to making these kits available at the county's testing sites. To get them, residents will need to leave home and go to a county site. Once there, they can either wait to get tested at the site or take a test kit home and send it in to the lab directly.

The test kits should be available at county testing sites tomorrow.

"We encourage people who have symptoms and can't get a test to stay while symptomatic," Ferrer said.