Los Angeles first major city in U.S. to offer free testing to all residents with or without symptoms
Updated: Jul 14, 2020
Update: Since the July spike in cases, the city is once again prioritizing testing for those who are symptomatic, those who've come in contact with someone who has tested positive for coronavirus, or essential workers. Please see the latest update here.
On Wednesday April 29th, Mayor Eric Garcetti announced that all Angelenos, even those without symptoms, can now get tested for COVID-19, at no cost.
"Los Angeles will become the first major city in America to offer wide-scale testing to all of our residents, with or without symptoms," he said in his daily press briefing.
Until now, only residents with symptoms as well as essential workers and those in institutional settings like nursing homes could be tested. Under the new guidelines, priority for same or next-day testing will still be given to people with symptoms and certain critical frontline workers who interact with the public.
The Mayor urged anyone who would like a test to sign up as soon as possible (while capacity lasts) via the city's coronavirus information page https://corona-virus.la/.