TUJUNGA, Calif. - It’s been a tough week for people trying to get free coronavirus testing offered by the county and city of Los Angeles as sites were clogged after a surge in demand for tests.
For Katia Oloy, who gets tested on a regular basis since she started participating in protests, the lack of appointments was especially frustrating.
“I don’t want to protest if I’m not able to get tested,” she said.
But exercising her right to protest is important to Oloy, she said. Since becoming a U.S. citizen over two decades ago, she has become well-versed in her rights.
“As an immigrant, you tend to be more educated about your rights and what your freedoms are because you get tested on that as part of the citizenship process,” she said. “I know it’s within my right to protest.”
That’s exactly what she started doing a few weeks ago, after seeing racial injustice against Black Americans.
“I thought this country was about equality,” she said. “I thought it was about giving people equal rights and freedoms and it just didn’t seem right to me that everyone wasn’t getting that.”
She joined Black Lives Matter protests, at first by ‘backlining’, which she described as providing food, water, and medical aid to protesters. She also participates in the front lines of smaller protests in Tujunga.
When attending a protest, Oloy said she is diligent about bringing extra face masks, sanitizer, and water. She also gets tested for coronavirus every week but ran into problems this week when she tried to book a free drive-up appointment.
“You would sign in and it’s like, 'Hey, we don’t have any appointments available, check back later,' and that was happening Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,” she said.
The surge in demand for testing comes as infection rates are on the rise among young people, according to LA County Public Health Director Dr. Barbara Ferrer. “Cases for people who are between the ages of 18 and 40 have also increased. That makes up, I think, 41% or 42% of all of our cases,” Ferrer said.
LA City officials said the lack of appointments earlier in the week were due in part because it’s moving to a new vendor and registration platform and it was pairing down test sites and appointment slots. However, after the surge in demand, it added 6,000 tests on Thursday. Officials in charge of the LA County test sites said there were slots available for same or next-day appointments at its test sites.
Oloy was finally able to secure an appointment at Dodger Stadium on Thursday. It was a relief, she said, because the thought of catching coronavirus at a protest weighs heavy on her mind.
“I’m scared. It could kill me. If I get sick and I recover, I would have permanent lung damage,” she said.
But Oloy hopes by taking safety precautions and getting regular tests, she will be safe and continue exercising her right to protest.