Free Pop-Up Coronavirus Test Site In Galt Fills Up Fast

GALT (CBS13) — A big coronavirus surge in a little city has health officials on alert and moving resources there.

Cars were parked outside Walker Community Park before the sun was up, waiting to get tested for COVID-19.

"They say there are all these testing sites. I call every day, day after day," said Tiffany Ortiz.

Tiffany and her husband Pablo came to the free pop-up testing site on Wednesday so she could get tested for the first time and he could for a second time.

"My husband he never had any symptoms," she said.

Tiffany says he tested positive for coronavirus two weeks ago and has been under quarantine ever since. He got it from his partner - they drive a diesel truck together. Ortiz says he has never been sick, but has been unable to work.

"I can't work," Pablo said. "But if I test two negatives then I go back to work."

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Alonzo Gutierrez was there for his third test. He too tested positive for the coronavirus several weeks ago but has shown no symptoms. All of his family has been sick.

"My wife and family have been hit harder, so [I'm] looking forward to getting a negative and heading back to work," he said.

And they do not know where they got it.

"As far as I know, no one knows. It's like trying to find a needle in a haystack," Gutierrez said.

Galt - which kept a steady 13 cases for weeks - now has over 300 more cases than cities several times their size, like Citrus Heights and Folsom. That's why the National Guard says Galt was selected for the pop-up testing site.

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"We are in partnership with the Sacramento County Department of Public Health. They monitor the positivity rates in different areas and it was determined it was a pretty high positivity rate, and they wanted to make sure everybody here was able to get tested," said Capt. Serenity Holden.

You don't have to show symptoms to be tested, just be over 18 and have a valid identification.

Capacity was limited, however. Within an hour of opening, gates were closed.

Health officials say they only have the capacity to test 100 kits from these sites.

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