(CBM) – Last Friday, during Gov. Gavin Newsom’s daily COVID-19 update to Californians, he announced that the state will begin “smart,” or “targeted” testing, for the disease.
“From my standpoint, the testing has gotten a lot better,” said Dr. Rodney Hood, who is a medical doctor in the San Diego area and former President of both the Golden State Medical Association and the National Medical Association, respectively.
I was concerned about the testing at the beginning but the state and most counties have responded in positive ways, and now we are able to get more people tested,” he said.
Last week, Gov. Newsom said, in one week alone, more than 88,000 people took coronavirus tests across the sate
Hood, who has run his own practice for 40 years, says he recently joined a network of federally qualified clinics called the San Ysidro Health Center.
Since he and other doctors stood up the two testing centers in his area — one drive-in and the other walk-up — they have tested about 3,000 people in two zip codes in San Diego county,
“We’ve found that once you remove barriers to testing, like demanding appointments people can’t keep because they couldn’t get a day off from work or another reason like that, they will show up.
