What's the COVID Testing Situation in Your Area?

[audreyh1]

This is pretty much what the NHS says when ordering the tests online (I got a box delivered yesterday). It says if you have symptoms then don’t take a lateral flow test. Instead, isolate and take a PCR test.

That works if the PCR test is available in a timely basis but where I am the local appointments are several days out for the PCR test.

My DB had symptoms, but couldn’t get a PCR test until 2 weeks later. Very frustrating!

He did test positive with an antigen test we were able to get him almost a week later.

 

[harllee]

I'd say it means "something". The data used to get the tests approved let 10 or 15 percent through, but those were mostly early disease stage, from what I recall. The population data indicates spread from an asymptomatic person is very rare, so symptoms mean you're spreading.Yes, yes, yes! If you don't feel well, stay at home! This is true with or without a test. Symptoms trump a negative test...even if it's just a cold or the regular flu, you really don't want to spread unpleasantness...stay home!

A couple of times when we have been potentially exposed we take the at home test on day 3 and then again on day 5 and if those are both negative and we have no symptoms we feel pretty confident we did not catch Covid. Is this a safe assumption?

 

[Chuckanut]

My grandchild was tested for Covid on a Friday after a parent came down and tested positive. Her parents just got her results on Thursday - 6 Days after the test. She was positive. :-(

Thankfully, the adults are all doing better, and the grandchild who is elementary school age, barely suffered at all. All of them had been vaccinated with two shots.

 

[disneysteve]

A couple of times when we have been potentially exposed we take the at home test on day 3 and then again on day 5 and if those are both negative and we have no symptoms we feel pretty confident we did not catch Covid. Is this a safe assumption?

Incubation can be up to 14 days. Testing 5 days out is probably going to catch most cases but not all, especially if you aren't symptomatic yet.


This is really the big problem with COVID. We would all have to isolate virtually all the time to avoid infection which obviously isn't feasible. Society would disintegrate.


I love when I go somewhere and they ask if I've been exposed to anyone with COVID in the past 2 weeks. Yes, absolutely, positively I have. If you've left your house and been around other humans, walked into a store, eaten in a restaurant, seen a movie, you've most likely been exposed to COVID. At this point in the pandemic, it's a stupid question to use for screening purposes.

 

[athena53]

I live in Ontario, Canada and PCR testing is only available for high-risk individuals and individuals who work in high risk settings who are symptomatic, as testing is now severely backlogged. Rapid tests are hard to come by as well (all sold out). I could however go to a pharmacy and they can administer the test for $35. Not economically feasible for many people. We are supposed to assume it's covid if we are having cold like symptoms and self isolate.

There was a sad post on my local (Kansas City suburb) FB page- someone said her husband was seeking a COVID test because he'd had a fever, which was likely due to an infected tooth, but needed a negative COVID test so he could return to work. The no-cost places such as CVS were booked for many days out. Someone mentioned an Urgent Care that had them for $240 and her response was, "We don't have the money for that".

My niece in Charlotte, NC just reported that her 9-year old is positive, likely from exposure at school. The rest of the family tested and was negative- even her twin sister, with whom she shares a room. Niece noted that they'd had to pay for the tests but would be reimbursed by insurance, so it looks like the freebie tests in that area are also very limited.

 

[tmm99]

There was a sad post on my local (Kansas City suburb) FB page- someone said her husband was seeking a COVID test because he'd had a fever, which was likely due to an infected tooth, but needed a negative COVID test so he could return to work. The no-cost places such as CVS were booked for many days out. Someone mentioned an Urgent Care that had them for $240 and her response was, "We don't have the money for that".

There are people who were/are postponing vaccination because they had/have to take time off from work for it, so I imagine people like that can't afford to pay for expensive tests either. My friend's work provides their employees with tests to come back to work (two negative tests in a row) after COVID. I wish all workplaces did that for their employees.

 

[sengsational]

A couple of times when we have been potentially exposed we take the at home test on day 3 and then again on day 5 and if those are both negative and we have no symptoms we feel pretty confident we did not catch Covid. Is this a safe assumption?

It sounds like you're being much more thoughtful than many people (who'd go on normally unless symptoms appeared). But with the 3 day wait and 48 hour spacing, that's about the best anyone could expect. So, yes, I'd also be confident enough to go about my life without worrying too much about infecting someone else if I did your protocol. That's just me.

 

[Surewhitey]

Dallas here.

DW signed us up last night for a drive up site. Got there and only 2 cars ahead of us. Nasal swab & results within 72 hours... We'll see.

 

[JoeWras]

There was a sad post on my local (Kansas City suburb) FB page- someone said her husband was seeking a COVID test because he'd had a fever, which was likely due to an infected tooth, but needed a negative COVID test so he could return to work. The no-cost places such as CVS were booked for many days out. Someone mentioned an Urgent Care that had them for $240 and her response was, "We don't have the money for that".

My niece in Charlotte, NC just reported that her 9-year old is positive, likely from exposure at school. The rest of the family tested and was negative- even her twin sister, with whom she shares a room. Niece noted that they'd had to pay for the tests but would be reimbursed by insurance, so it looks like the freebie tests in that area are also very limited.

For future reference for your niece: https://www.mecknc.gov/COVID-19/Pages/When-You-Should-Be-Tested.aspx

Mecklenburg county NC is finally opening up more test sites, as mentioned at the link. Wake and Mecklenburg have similar population. Wake has been way ahead in testing. Finally, Mecklenburg is trying to catch up.

 

[harllee]

SMH-- the sole local testing site here in Chapel Hill just announced it would be closed to today due to "snow". Any tiny amount of snow we are to get is not coming until tomorrow. I give my county (Orange County NC) a big fat FAIL on testing.

 

[Qs Laptop]

Update on the 500 million home test kits that the government is going to distribute. First of all, the number has been increased by another 500 million, so the total is now 1 billion test kits to be distributed. Each household will be limited to getting four test kits.

You get the test kits by going to a government website, covidtests.gov, and ordering them. 7 to 12 days later they will be shipped to you, which I guess means you'll get them 10 to 15 days after you order them.

Better than nothing, I suppose.

How about instead of waiting around for them to be mailed to you, the government sets it up so you go to the Post Office and pick up your test kits? When you order the test kits on the government site they could give you a username and a password which you would take to the post office to pick up your test kits. Or they could have you print out a QR code which you would have scanned at the post office and you would receive your test kits. Sure, there might need to be dedicated workers at the post office to administer this plan but it makes more sense to me then waiting up to two weeks to get your test kits after you order them.

It need not be the post office where you would go to pick him up it could be a pharmacy, Walmart, Target, etc. I'm kind of wondering if using the US Mail as the delivery mechanism is some backhanded way of giving the postal service more revenues.

 

[sengsational]

Better than nothing, I suppose.

Now that most of the non-bureaucrats, and many of the bureaucrats are finally admitting that pretty much everybody on earth will get this virus, I wonder if it's too little too late. I suppose it's good practice for next time, but it really should have happened a year and a half ago, when it would have been much more useful.

 

[jollystomper]

It looks like the covid test kit ordering site from the U.S Government is live: https://www.covidtests.gov/

Every home in the U.S. is eligible to order 4 free at-⁠home COVID-⁠19 tests. The tests are completely free. Orders will usually ship in 7-12 days.

 

[Chuckanut]

It looks like the covid test kit ordering site from the U.S Government is live: https://www.covidtests.gov/

The kits won't arrive in time for me. But, I ordered them for the future. I can't see corona virus disappearing from our lives for years.

I am three days into my symptoms. My PCR test is tomorrow, though I am looking for a cancellation today that I might fill. After that it's one to three days to get the results.

 

[iloveyoga]

It was easy and fast to order the four free tests. COVIDtests.gov

 

[Another Reader]

Yes and it worked the first time! Thanks!

 

[disneysteve]

How about instead of waiting around for them to be mailed to you, the government sets it up so you go to the Post Office and pick up your test kits?

It need not be the post office where you would go to pick him up it could be a pharmacy, Walmart, Target, etc.

I don't think that could possibly work. All of those places - post office, Walmart, Target - are all horribly understaffed. There's no way they could handle the added volume of hundreds or thousands of people showing up to pick up test kits. Mailing them makes the most sense given those options.

 

[Aerides]

How about instead of waiting around for them to be mailed to you, the government sets it up so you go to the Post Office and pick up your test kits?

Have you tried going to a post office in recent times? I'd rather stab myself in the eye, let alone doing it with a mass of people who want covid tests in a hurry (Come get your Covid...tests!)

And logistically, the long part of the 10-15 days its the national distribution to the hubs. The last mile (from your PO to you) will only be a day or two. So it wouldn't save that much time. I imagine they've coordinated with the USPS and will mass drop them out to designated hubs.

 

[harllee]

I ordered my free test, it will be interesting to see how long it takes them to arrive.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Have you tried going to a post office in recent times? I'd rather stab myself in the eye, let alone doing it with a mass of people who want covid tests in a hurry (Come get your Covid...tests!)

And logistically, the long part of the 10-15 days its the national distribution to the hubs. The last mile (from your PO to you) will only be a day or two. So it wouldn't save that much time. I imagine they've coordinated with the USPS and will mass drop them out to designated hubs.

You aren't kdding!

Here is a direct link to order the 4 tests. This keeps you from clicking through the covidtest.gov website.

https://special.usps.com/testkits

 

[Chuckanut]

Yes and it worked the first time! Thanks!

They are Beta Testing it today with real people. Officially the website to get the 'free' tests opens tomorrow.

 

[audreyh1]

Ordered ours! Thanks!

 

[jollystomper]

How about instead of waiting around for them to be mailed to you, the government sets it up so you go to the Post Office and pick up your test kits? When you order the test kits on the government site they could give you a username and a password which you would take to the post office to pick up your test kits. Or they could have you print out a QR code which you would have scanned at the post office and you would receive your test kits. Sure, there might need to be dedicated workers at the post office to administer this plan but it makes more sense to me then waiting up to two weeks to get your test kits after you order them.

Based on local experiences with libraries handing out covid test kits in a similar manner, it would not work very well. Not only would you need personnel to administer the process inside the post office, you would need personnel to deal with crowds and traffic snarls that certainly would occur trying to hand them out in a post office.And then (becsue people are people) the ones showing up without said username or QR code insisting that they ordered one but forget the paperwork and it is desperately needed. No system will be perfect but mailing it to the house is a good start. Now all you have to worry about is the carrier delivering the package to the wrong house (has happened to me too many times and am currently dealing again with such a situation).

 

[Qs Laptop]

I don't think that could possibly work. All of those places - post office, Walmart, Target - are all horribly understaffed. There's no way they could handle the added volume of hundreds or thousands of people showing up to pick up test kits. Mailing them makes the most sense given those options.

There was $50 billion in the American Rescue Act for expanding Covid testing. Use it to hire people to administer/distribute tests. Pay them decent money. Or where did that money go?

The daughter of a friend of mine who is a nursing student has been working at a drive through test site. She gets paid $50 an hour. Surely with $50 billion allocated for testing they could pay someone $25 an hour to pass out Covid tests.

 

[Ronstar]

DW just ordered tests from the post office. We'll be self tested if the need arises.