Faced with the growing demand for Covid tests, at least 200 members of the California National Guard joined this Saturday as interim medical assistants to testing centers in Chula Vista, National City, San Diego, and other cities in the county.
The state troopers were dispatched to 50 Optum Serve testing centers across the state, six of them in San Diego County, which are facing the highest demand.
Governor Gavin Newsom's office reported that more military will be deployed next week to support those centers.
The governor ordered the deployment of troops so that the centers can attend to people who show up without making an appointment for tests.
Demand for testing has skyrocketed in the state as the Omicron variant of the coronavirus spreads rapidly across the state.
According to the California Department of Health, Omicron now accounts for 80 percent of new infections.
But the wave of infections is unprecedented; it has surpassed the worst previous rates of the pandemic in California.
Los Angeles County, for example, reported 43,712 new positive cases in 24 hours late Friday, and the outbreak continues to rise.
Newsom said in a statement that “California led the fight in the country against Covid, with the first public health measures in the nation, which helped save tens of thousands of lives; now we continue to support communities in their response to Covid by strengthening testing capacity. "
In Chula Vista, the first soldiers were deployed to support the testing center located at 131 Oleander Avenue, which is open Tuesday through Saturday from 7 in the morning to 7 at night.
