Covid-19 Over-the-Counter (OTC) Partnership Program- Direct Equity Partnership Outreach Initiative

About the Program

Category: Health (Best in Category)

Year: 2022

On December 20, 2021, the Over-the-Counter (OTC) Partnership Program was created to provide testing resources to the San Bernardino County community. What started as a small scale initiative, receiving an average of 20 to 30 OTC test kit (2 tests/per kit) requests per day from partner requests, quickly transformed into a larger scale operation that doubled in demand to an average of 50-80 requests per day. The need for rapid testing reached a high when a testing surge emerged in late December 2021 through January 2022, due to an increase in Covid-19 outbreaks as a result from the Omicron variant. Through the dissemination of emails, flyers, word-of-mouth, direct outreach by Cities to their eligible stakeholders, and communication from the County’s Board of Supervisor to their constituents, many partners received information on how to request OTC antigen test kits from the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health (SBCDPH). The testing team was able to provide OTC antigen test kit resources to government agencies, healthcare providers, community-based organizations/churches/non-profits, skilled nursing facilities and private schools. Keeping in mind the need to provide equitable resources to the community, the OTC Partnership program, extended its services by taking part in direct community partnership outreach via phone calls and emails. This initiative allowed for the OTC test kit distribution to cover an extensive base of partners that may have not received information about OTC Partnership Program or had access to OTC test kits. These partners distributed OTC antigen test kits to their served communities, some of which are the more vulnerable populations in the County.