State health officials say their best chance at fighting the resurgence of coronavirus cases in the Baton Rouge area is testing as many people as possible to get a more accurate snapshot of the disease's presence in the community, especially among those infected who aren't displaying symptoms.

Starting Tuesday, the federal government is backing free COVID-19 testing to about 60,000 people over 12 days at three new sites opening in East Baton Rouge Parish and one in Ascension Parish.

"We're trying to flood the market in concentrated areas with access to testing with fast turnaround times," said Kim Hood, COVID-19 community testing coordinator for the state health department. "This initiative is giving us a boost to testing access in a single region to see if we can identify asymptomatic cases, intervene and get people quarantined to try and slow down this continued spread we're seeing."

Baton Rouge was one of three cities identified by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as COVID-19 hotspots after recent spikes in reported cases and hospitalizations since business re-openings began. Jacksonville, Florida, and McAllen, Texas, are the other two launching similar surge testing efforts this week, Hood said.

The new test sites are coming online at a time when many medical facilities are running out of testing kits as new cases surge in the state and across the nation.

Hood said test kits for the sites are being allocated directly by the federal health department, which will supply what's needed to meet the 5,000-per-day test goal they've set for the next 12 days.

People should get their results within three to five days, Hood said.

The Louisiana Department of Health has traced at least 230 cases of the coronavirus to bars across the state, including the more than 100 case

"We've contracted with a single lab that's giving us a considerably shorter turnaround for results than we've seen with a lot of the larger commercial labs," she said.

The new regional testing sites are operating a little differently than many previous ones.

Most notably, they're open to everyone, not just those living in East Baton Rouge Parish or exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms. And people don't have to pay or get doctors orders to receive the tests which have been requirements for many of the drive-thru facilities that opened in Baton Rouge after the virus broke out in the area in March.

"With this surge in testing, we can learn how many people there are who are asymptomatic and walking around with a virus that can be spread," said Dr. Dawn Marcelle, the Louisiana Department of Health medical director for Region 2, which includes most of the Baton Rouge area. "These are people we otherwise might miss if they're not in the hospital or haven't been admitted to an emergency room where they would get tested."

Louisiana health officials on Monday reported 1,101 new coronavirus cases in its daily statewide report, with Region 2 accounting for more than 140 of those diagnoses.

Marcelle noted that research shows the resurgence in COVID-19 cases, especially among young people, is being caused by the "community spread" of the virus outside of high-risk settings such as prisons and nursing homes.

A White House report last week cited Jefferson, Lafayette and East Baton Rouge parishes as having the highest number of new coronavirus cases in the stateover a three-week period. That same report singled out Baton Rouge as having the most newly diagnosed cases, recommending that the government implement a mask order and that people who took part in recent protests against police brutality or attended social gatherings get tested.

Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome followed many of the recommendations in the report, signing an executive order late last week requiring that masks or face coverings be worn in businesses and anywhere in public where social distancing can't occur.

On the first day of Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome's executive order requiring people wear masks at Baton Rouge public businesses, most

"When our numbers are so high that the federal government has concerns and is looking at our city in particular, that should be a wake-up call," Broome said Monday. "People got a little relaxed in terms of adhering to the mandates in Phase 2, and that's what brought us to where we are today."

Susan Hassig, a Tulane University epidemiologist, said the only way to contain the virus and revive the positive trends that prompted the governor to lift his stay-at-home order is the earlier identification of those who are infected. That allows health workers to alert others who were exposed to the virus to the need to take precautions, such as self-isolation.

"If we wait to test sick people when they show up at hospitals, it's too late," she said. "Just testing is valuable. But the real value for the community comes from them letting the health department know who they've spent time with after they've tested positive. Then we can chop off those chains to keep the virus from spreading and spreading."

The new testing sites will be open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. seven days a week starting Tuesday and ending July 18.

The test sites are:

Also, starting Wednesday a mobile testing site will be at Healing Place Church, 19202 Highland Road in Baton Rouge, through July 18 with the exception of July 12.

Pre-registration isn't required but is encouraged. People can do so at http://www.DoINeedaCOVID19test.com. Those who don't do so earlier can register on site, but it will take longer, officials said.

Test results will be provided by email, and people who test positive will also be contacted by phone. There will not be a phone number to call for results.

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Coronavirus testing aims to reach 60,000 people in East Baton Rouge and Ascension in 12 days - The Advocate