SLO County now offering no cost coronavirus testing to all residents

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- San Luis Obispo County is now offering testing for COVID-19 to all residents free of charge.

Anyone who wishes to be tested, even those who are not showing any symptoms, can be tested at the county's two newest testing sites, in Grover Beach and Paso Robles.

The specific locations of those sites are, Ramona Garden Park Center in Grover Beach and the Paso Robles Veteran's Hall.

"We want to continuously make more testing available in our community, so while we have additional capacity, we are absolutely asking that anyone who feels that they need a test, or who warrants a test, they make an appointment." said San Luis Obispo County Public Health Officer Dr. Penny Borenstein.

The county points out that increased testing, including people without symptoms, will assist health officials understand the full impact of COVID-19, and will help protect public health as the community begins to re-open.

"Testing is one of the state's criteria that will help us move to where we need to get to in terms of reopening, and so we want to maintain our testing capacity and our testing utilization," said Dr. Borenstein.

According to a county release, people with health insurance will have information collected when registering for an appointment, but no co-pay is required.

For people who doo not have health insurance, the State of California will pay for the test.

The county expanded testing at the two locations last Monday.

Both locations run Monday through Friday, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and each site can test up to 132 people per day.

Appointments can be made through ReadySLO.org, which is the preferred way to set up a time.

For those unable to make an appointment online, they can call (888) 634-1123.

Testing should last about five minutes.

This testing is available through a partnership with the County of San Luis Obispo, the State of California, and the Cities of Paso Robles and Grover Beach.