San Gabriel City to Host Mobile COVID-19 Testing Center at Mission Playhouse
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January 6, 2021
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January 16, 2021 edit: Due to a switch in testing providers, appointments and walk-ups to the CORE COVID-19 testing site at the Mission Playhouse have been cancelled for Saturday, January 16. Appointments at the Mission Playhouse will resume on January 19 to 21 from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Appointments are encouraged for this walk-up testing location. Please note: this is not a drive-through testing site.
You may register here.
We apologize for the inconvenience. Alternate COVID-19 testing locations may also be found here.
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To improve our region’s COVID-19 testing capacity, the City of San Gabriel is partnering with Community Organized Relief Effort (CORE) to offer free COVID-19 tests for San Gabriel residents and the San Gabriel Valley community. Testing will be held at the San Gabriel Mission Playhouse at 320 South Mission Drive on January 8, 9, 12 to 16 and 19 to 21 from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Working in coordination with Los Angeles County, CORE will provide a non-painful family-friendly, oral swab test through their mobile testing center. No ID or insurance is required and results will be given to participants within 48 hours via text or email.
“Given the surge in COVID-19 cases, it’s crucial that we offer ample opportunity for our community to get tested,” said San Gabriel Mayor Denise Menchaca. “We’re very thankful to be working with CORE to provide a much-needed testing location for our region.”
Appointments are highly encouraged and time slots will be released on a staggered basis on Curative.com/sites/17868. Limited walk-in tests will also accepted. Participants are instructed to not eat, drink, smoke, chew gum or to brush their teeth 20 minutes prior to the test to ensure a clear sample.
About the City of San Gabriel
The birthplace of the Los Angeles region, the City of San Gabriel features a diverse population of over 41,000 residents. Founded in 1771 and incorporated in 1913, San Gabriel serves as the home of the Mission San Gabriel. The City features a historic core in the Mission District and a vibrant arts and culture scene at the San Gabriel Mission Playhouse. For more information about the City of San Gabriel, visit the City’s website at SanGabrielCity.com or blog at InsideSanGabriel.com.
About CORE
CORE (Community Organized Relief Effort) is a nonprofit organization co-founded by Sean Penn and Ann Lee that is dedicated to saving lives and strengthening communities affected by or vulnerable to crisis. Within hours of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, Penn mobilized a powerful network to take immediate action. More than 10 years later, CORE continues to lead sustainable programs focused on four pillars: emergency relief, disaster preparedness, environmental resiliency and community building. The organization has expanded beyond Haiti to support communities in The Bahamas, Puerto Rico and the United States. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, CORE has been operating free testing sites across the country alongside local partners, providing essential resources and contact tracing services as well as part of its integrated “CORE 8” approach to combat the pandemic. In 2021, CORE is working with its partners nationwide to ensure safe and equitable distribution of vaccines as they become available to the communities the organization serves. More information: www.coreresponse.org, and follow CORE on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.
Jan. 22—With demand sky-high for COVID-19 vaccines, Miami-Dade commissioners on Friday were handed a coveted batch of appointments to fill as they see fit.
The head of Jackson Health, the county hospital that commissioners help oversee, announced the distribution plan, saying each commissioner's chief of staff would receive a form with 100 vaccine slots to fill. Jackson CEO Carlos Migoya said appointments must go to people 65 or over who can prove they live in Florida.
'You'll have a spreadsheet in which you'll be able to provide us the names and numbers of the people' who get the appointments, Migoya said during a meeting with commissioners. He described the plan as a way to reach residents who haven't been able to get appointments through the largely online process that's already underway.
'It may not be enough,' Migoya said of 1,300 appointments reserved for the 13-seat commission, which has control over some county funding for the hospital. 'Or it may be too much. We're going to try it. If this works, we'll do it again. Obviously subject to getting more vaccine.'
The announcement brought pushback from some commissioners.
'This worries me,' Commissioner Eileen Higgins said. Higgins, who represents Little Havana and parts of Miami Beach, said she questioned why commissioners should be put in charge of deciding who gets access to limited supplies of vaccines. 'It worries me now there's another 13 phone numbers and addresses people have in order to access vaccines. People are confused enough.'
Others said the plan made sense, given the apparent racial and income gaps when it comes to neighborhoods that are lagging in vaccination rates. Commissioner Jean Monestime, whose district includes North Miami, said his office is a frequent source of calls from people who are falling through the cracks of government services.
'To many people in the community, we are the ones they access,' he said. 'It's our offices they know.'
At the start of the online video meeting, Mayor Daniella Levine Cava previewed Migoya's announcement about the vaccine appointment slots, which included an unknown number available to the mayor's office.
'I'm happy to share we'll be partnering to make additional appointments available .. in partnership with your offices and Jackson, which Carlos Migoya will tell you about in a little more detail shortly,' she said. 'We will go deeper into under-served communities and provide vaccines to those who are harder to reach.'
Rachel Johnson, Levine Cava's spokeswoman, did not say how many vaccine appointments Jackson provided the mayor's office. She said the office 'would be working directly with community organizations' to fill appointments provided by Jackson.
Johnson said the mayor wasn't aware of Migoya's vaccine-appointment offer until just ahead of the meeting. Lightning poker machine. Levine Cava 'got a call 20 minutes before the meeting' about the Jackson appointments, Johnson said. She also pointed to remarks Levine Cava made in the meeting linking the Jackson effort to outreach to 'communities at great risk.'
After some public criticism unfolded during the meeting — Bal Harbour Mayor Gabriel Groisman called it a 'bad idea' on Twitter, saying there are 'plenty of non-profits' that could fill the appointments — the commission's chairman said he would decline the appointments.
'I appreciate you doing this,' said Chairman Jose 'Pepe' Diaz, whose district includes the Doral area. 'Other people, unfortunately, will look at this and [say] we're trying to make it political. .. You can hold off on my 100 and use them as needed for the people coming in. That's just me.'
Higgins' office also said she would be declining the vaccination slots, and Commissioner Javier Souto said he also didn't want them. Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins also put out a statement saying her office would decline the appointments. Commissioner Raquel Regalado released a statement saying 'returning this allotment is difficult' but that she would decline the 'well-intentioned' offer.
Lidia Amoretti, spokesperson for Jackson, said the idea behind the offer was to tap into commission contacts with pockets of the community needing help. 'We understand elected officials often have specialized knowledge of the unique, hard-to-reach populations in their districts, so we wanted to give them that opportunity to help those people,' she said.
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Commissioner Rebeca Sosa called it a no-win situation. 'If we say no, our constituents will get mad. If we say yes, everybody is going to get mad and say, 'You're trying to take advantage of this situation to benefit your friends,' ' Sosa said, also declining the appointment slots. 'The more we do, the more criticized we are.'