Santa Ana Unified, the only school district in Orange County to mandate COVID-19 testing of all students and staff last year, is dropping the requirement when school doors reopen next week.
Instead, district officials are offering voluntary testing for students, their families, and anyone in the community who needs one. Testing will be offered at four school sites that have yet to be determined.
The district stopped requiring the mandatory weekly testing this summer for a variety of reasons, said district spokesman Fermin Leal.
“Vendors don’t get reimbursed by COVID funds. The demand is not as high as it was back then,” Leal said.
Last year, Santa Ana Unified tested its 40,000 students and 5,000 staff members weekly at their own campuses by a vendor who passed the charges on to either the government or to students’ and employees’ insurance.
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The process of getting every student, teacher, and staff member through improved over time, Leal said.
“When we first started, it was a little more challenging just getting teachers to get their kids out, having students line up,” Leal said. “But toward the end, it was pretty smooth. Kids were in and out within 10 minutes.”
This summer, Santa Ana Unified is offering free testing at the district office, Mendez Fundamental Intermediate, and Santa Ana and Valley View high schools during the week.
“We’re not getting a lot of traffic right now, but we’re expecting it to pick up the week before school starts,” Leal said.
Officials have not yet honed in on the four sites that will offer the tests daily this school year, but it will likely involve a drive-through option, Leal said. After school starts on Aug. 15, students may request a take-home testing kit at their campus.
Los Angeles Unified also dropped its weekly testing for coronavirus infections and is requiring the test only of those who are sick or showing symptoms.
During the height of the pandemic, Santa Ana and Anaheim had the highest number of cases in Orange County. In the latest tally reported by the Orange County Health Care Agency, Santa Ana has seen a total of 86,126 cases. Anaheim had 91,741 confirmed cases.
In the past two weeks, Santa Ana and Anaheim continued to have an above-average number of cases per capita. About one in four residents in those cities have been sick with the virus, according to local health data of confirmed cases.
Orange County still has high communicable levels of COVID-19, based on metrics according to the Centers for Disease Control. However, over the past two weeks, the numbers have started improving throughout Southern California, including Orange County. As of Friday, there were 269 Orange County residents hospitalized with the virus, the local health care agency reported. That’s down from a recent high of 350 on July 27.
Across Orange County, the number of tests processed by laboratories has dropped, and it’s among the lowest level since the pandemic. But those numbers are difficult to track because many people test themselves at home and those results are not officially tabulated by any agency.
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