Local partnership brings free testing for Santa Ana residents, and Santa Ana College students and employees.
(Santa Ana, CA) - Free COVID-19 testing will be available starting Saturday, August 22, 2020, to all Santa Ana residents, Santa Ana College (SAC) students, and Rancho Santiago Community College District (RSCCD) employees thanks to a partnership between the City of Santa Ana and RSCCD.
As positive cases of COVID-19 continue to occur, RSCCD was looking for a way to obtain more resources to address the health and safety of their students and employees, some who are scheduled to be on campus in the fall. They began talks with the City of Santa Ana after the city identified the top six zip codes with the highest number of cases and where testing was needed most. These include two zip codes, 92704 and 92706, where SAC and RSCCD’s Centennial Education Center are located.
It was announced at the RSCCD Board of Trustees meeting on August 10, 2020, that SAC will host free COVID-19 tests through a joint public partnership with the City of Santa Ana. This followed the City of Santa Ana’s City Council approval of a spending plan for $28.6 million in federal CARES Act funds that will provide rental assistance, business grants, free COVID-19 testing and other resources to the Santa Ana community.
“We are proud to partner with the City of Santa Ana on this plan, which will greatly increase area testing and our ability as a college and a city to keep our students, employees and the community safer during this pandemic,” said Board President Claudia C. Alvarez.
Chancellor Marvin Martinez added, “in addition to the health and safety of our staff and students, we also see the partnership with the City of Santa Ana as a way of demonstrating we can keep cases down through testing at SAC. Our students will feel confident as we are testing our employees and students attending SAC so they can safely come to a face-to-face class.”
The City’s testing program allots $5.9 million toward testing in areas with high case counts. Currently, this free program has one physical location at SAC and multiple mobile sites. No insurance is needed. Drive-up testing is by appointment only in SAC’s Parking Lot #7 and #8 with vehicles entering via the Bristol street entrance. People do not need to be showing symptoms to take the test. The test is self-administered under the guidance of a medical professional and results are provided forty-eight to seventy-two hours following the test.
The SAC site testing hours will be 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. every Saturday and Sunday for eight weeks starting August 22nd. At the SAC site, students who have face-to-face classes and RSCCD employees will have first priority to be tested, with the goal of testing 400 – 600 people daily. Information about the availability of testing will be emailed to all students and RSCCD employees, and posted on the RSCCD and SAC websites.
This partnership will also garner some opportunities for students, as SAC nursing students will be able to assist at the site and gain valuable clinical in-person hours. There will be a physician and other licensed medical staff on site during testing at all times.
Santa Ana residents, Santa Ana College students and RSCCD employees who would like to be tested will need to pre-register for the test by either calling 877-362-9779 or going to www.sac.edu or www.rsccd.edu to complete a registration form. On the day of testing, people will need to bring a form of identification. No health insurance is needed. Information is also available in Spanish and Vietnamese.
For more information on this free COVID-19 testing program, please go to www.rsccd.edu or www.sac.edu.
About Santa Ana College
Santa Ana College (SAC), which turned 100 years old in 2015, serves about 18,000 students each semester at its main campus in Santa Ana. The college prepares students for transfer to four-year institutions, and provides invaluable workforce training and customized training for business and industry. In addition, another 11,000 students are served through the college’s School of Continuing Education located at Centennial Education Center. Ranked as one of the nation’s top two-year colleges awarding associate degrees to Latino and Asian students, the college is also recognized throughout the state for its comprehensive workforce training programs for nurses, firefighters, law enforcement and other medical personnel. SAC is one of two comprehensive colleges under the auspices of the Rancho Santiago Community College District.
