COVID-19 cases rising in Southeast LA, new testing site opens in Huntington Park

HUNTINGTON PARK, Calif. (KABC) -- A crisis response organization, CORE, has stepped in to help launch new temporary testing sites across Los Angeles County, including a new pop-up location at Raul R. Perez Memorial Park in Huntington Park which opened on Tuesday.

According to the L.A. County Department of Public Health, the City of Huntington Park is in the top 25 areas in Los Angeles County with the highest 14-day cumulative case rates.

"We have a lot of workers in the community that have to go to work and don't have another choice, but they don't have the opportunity to work from home. So we wanted to provide more opportunity for testing," said Karina Macias, a Huntington Park City councilmember.

According to L.A. County officials, since the start of the pandemic, the Southeast Los Angeles area continues to see a high volume of cases. With the new site, officials expect to test from 1,300 to 1,500 people a day.

"Because the more testing there is, the more data there is. There more data that the county can get regarding with what's happening within the community, the more resources can come in," said Sunny Lee, deputy area manager with CORE. "Core and the county come up with various areas rising in need as far as testing concerns and lack resources. So we do our best to partner with communities to go into areas to temporary moments of time."

Appointments can be made online for the new temporary site at Raul Perez Memorial Park-which will be open until Jan. 9.

"We just want to remind the community to get tested, to continue to social distance and to not go to gatherings," said Councilmember Macias.

Core is currently hiring and is looking to add more resources across the area.

Click here to make an appointment.

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