Our Plan, Our Story, Our Lives

We want to prioritize COVID-19 testing for frontliners, essential workers, the people in contact with high risk individuals, and citizens of the community, with or without symptoms!

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1. Our Story 2. The Plan 3. Our Goals 4. Transparency 5. Avellino's CoV2 COVID-19 PCR Test 6. What We Need

Our Story

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We are a group of grassroots volunteers made up of local community members and frontline healthcare workers in Alameda County. Given the unprecedented circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is our greatest desire to provide FREE MASS COVID-19 TESTING in Oakland Arena Parking Lot in order to help alleviate the strain on the health system, as well as to ensure access to testing for communities of color and lower socio-economic status that are historically underserved.




"For the first time ever, we reached over 200,000 cases (210,161 to be exact) in the United States. In one day. We currently have 100,667 hospitalized. And, just today, we lost 2,706 souls.

And if you think this is bad, hospitalizations and deaths follow a 22-day lag. So, in about 22 days, our DAILY death toll will be ~4200. It’s too late to do anything about that. We will reach that number. And, that is, assuming our hospital systems can keep up."

-YLE, December 4, 2020 (Data Source: Johns Hopkins COVID-19 Case Map: Mapping 2019-nCoV)

The Plan

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We will test and prioritize Alameda County employees, essential workers, and community members unable to receive free testing in a timely manner. We want to make it convenient, accessible, with results received within 24-48 hours. At the site we will perform community outreach, education, and advocacy related to COVID-19.

We will act as a supplement to free testing sites and test asymptomatic individuals or those who are unable to have access to testing in a timely and convenient manner.

The community's frontline workers are the inspiration for launching this initiative. There is no funding required for our PCR kits, but we will fundraise for additional supplies and for any unforeseen cost from the community.


Our vision is to build a volunteer group comprised of medical students and off-duty Emergency Medical Services Frontliners. These volunteers will manage the central testing site while learning from Hayward and Fremont Fire Department. We will be following strict CDC guidelines for social distancing, during this event. We will be the main testing group, but if other sites would like to join, they are encouraged to join. We also have a UCSF playbook to follow. We want to replicate mass testing being done in different counties. We also want to follow the SAP Center’s 5 day event, where they were testing 1500 a day with a very minimal number of staff.

Our Goals

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Our goal is to secure and host a mass community testing site, which will prioritize essential workers, high risk individuals and also people (with or without symptoms) who work or live in Alameda County.

Please take a look and what we need for this project to succeed and Contact Us if you are interested!

  • Test 1,200 plus a day at Oakland Arena’s Parking Lot
  • Have other community testing sites join in a collaborative effort to mass test
  • We will use FDA-approved PCR or/and antibody testing. We will be using Avellino Labs PCR kits, which are the current test kits for Hayward Fire testing site. We want to share the data to the public health department and for public information to help understand the spread and to respond accordingly
  • We will test the uninsured and insured for free with or without symptoms
  • Have testers visit essential businesses, employees, and community members unable to make it to the testing site.
  • Collaborate and replicate the efforts of Hayward and Fremont Fire Testing site. 500 a day testing site, Santa Clara County Mass testing event of testing 1000 plus per day at SAP Center, and UCSF’s mass testing events conducted in Oakland.
  • Funds raised through the GoFundMe via partnership with the Caring Angels Foundation organization will be used to fund the site. PCR kits will be free.
If you are a community organization, non-profit, or business that wants to help in any way, please contact us here!

Transparency

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About the Organizers

Because we need to rely on the community to make this happen, we will be transparent about the project every step of the way. HelpTestBayArea are a grassroots team, composed of community members in Alameda County.

We are in direct partnership with Caring Angels Foundation (non-profit organization). Caring Angels Foundation is a U.S.-based 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, with a federal tax ID number (EIN) of 26-4678011. Caring Angels Foundation's mission is to promote health, education, and nutrition, particularly in rural areas. For more information, please visit CaringAngels.info.

We would like to collaborate or receive guidance from Hayward and Fremont Fire Department for their free PCR testing experience.

Possible Testing Locations

The event location is pending approval, but we have identified two prime locations with optimal testing capabilities.
  1. Oakland Arena Parking Lot
  2. Bayfair Mall Parking Lot

Volunteers and Staffers

The event will consist of all professionals and students with a medical background. Community volunteers and/or paid non-profit employees are welcomed by their organization.

Tests

Tests are FDA approved, with data supporting the highest accuracy and sensitivity. Avellino Labs PCR testing is already in use by Hayward Fire and is currently collecting data to help control the spread of the virus. We will have a priority list for the day of testing. FDA-approved PCR and possibly Antibody testing based on funding and access to test essential workers, high risk individuals, and people with or without symptoms working or living in Alameda County.

Avellino's CoV2 COVID-19 PCR Test

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We have confirmed the tests we will be using for our event will be Avellino's CoV2 COVID-19 PCR Test. The PCR Test has +95% sensitivity and +95% specificity and has received Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from the FDA on March 25th, 2020. PCR Results in under 48 hours of the specimen arriving at the lab in Menlo Park, CA.

Secure HIPAA complient web portal for test ordering/results delivery. Swab collection (nasal--mid-turbinate) and transported at room temperature (Remote training for ordering and collection provided to necessary staff)

Avellino's Policy

Minimum order 25 kits. We will request client orders for the quantity of test kits needed for 3 weeks. Test kits are in limited supply and we don’t want kits sitting unused for long periods of time.

Avellino will bill insurance for testing for either your residents or employees (Medicare, Medicaid, Medi-Cal, Kaiser, HMOs, PPOs, etc.) If Avellino is not reimbursed by the insurance for the test we will bill the client $100. Per the Families First Act passed by Congress, insurances are to cover COVID-19 testing. If the test kit is not returned to Avellino for specimen processing within 21 days of delivery to the client, we will charge $25 per kit. If the kit is returned for specimen processing after the 21 days, we will credit the $25 back to the customer which can be applied to non-reimbursed tests or future shipping charges of additional test kits.

Please visit www.avellinocoronatest.com for more.

What We Need

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  1. Oakland Arena and BayFair mall approval as a site for testing, with public health support and guidance.
  2. Alameda County Board of Supervisors’ full approval and support
  3. Mask Donations to provide to each person tested
  4. Donations of equipment (tents, tables, chairs)

Why are we doing this?

We want to focus on Alameda County residents and workers in the community. This will prepare the community for Phase 3 of California’s four-stage reopening plan.

We hope as the stay at home is slowly lifted, we will give reassurance to the community to go back to work. We are trying to team up with the City Fire Department in donating our time and staff by helping to collaborate with a local hospital in the area for follow up care and research in partnership with a local hospital in the county. This is unlikely at this time. This partnership depends on a central testing location.

This is an incredible opportunity for us to protect our elderly and every frontline worker and town-sustaining worker while contributing to research that will benefit the entire Bay Area.

Let's help the community together!

Contact

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All Rights Reserved. Site Started Apr 27, 2020.

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