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Raleigh, North Carolina – Due to growing demand for COVID testing, Wake County may have to revert to strategies used during the height of the pandemic.
Long lines formed at COVID-19 testing sites in Raleigh on Monday, spilling onto the streets, as cases continued to rise.
The test sites at Wake County Human Services Center on Kidd Road and Vision Church RDU on Departure Drive both had dozens of cars awaiting testing Monday morning at 9 a.m.
A duo, Ethan Porter and Eliza Krans, drove to the Departure Drive site after seeing the line of cars waiting at Kidd Road.
“It was like 3 blocks and then around the corner,” Krans said.
These Wake County public health sites have already tested more than 15,000 so far this month – and it’s only been nine days.
That’s 2,000 more than the entire month of July and double the June test total.
Free testing sites have remained open throughout the pandemic, but the lines seen for most of 2020 declined once vaccinations resumed in the spring – when hours of waiting shifted to testing sites. vaccination, leaving the test sites largely empty.
“We don’t want to see someone wait an hour, but that was the reality when demand was so high before, and we ask for patience,” said Stacy Beard of Wake County Public Health.
With COVID cases increasing more than they were at the same time last year, Wake County says they may have to revert to the strategies they used at the height of the pandemic – in increasing the hours and possibly adding more test sites.
“We’ve been offering 7 days a week, and I think as the demand increases you’ll see us come back to something like this,” Beard said.
The county is encouraging people to go to its website to get a free home test kit sent to you overnight – or to make an appointment at a drugstore testing site.
COVID cases on the rise again
Over the weekend, NC saw an additional 15,800 new COVID cases since Friday.
This is a 994% increase in the number of cases compared to what we were a month ago.
As of Monday, North Carolina averaged nearly 3,300 new cases of COVID-19 each day, a number that has not been seen since late November. The spike in cases is largely due to the highly contagious Delta variant and the larger number of people meeting in groups without masks, according to local health officials.
Last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new guidelines for fully vaccinated people, saying even they should wear a mask in some areas where COVID-19 cases are spreading. Most central North Carolina school districts and many local universities and businesses have responded to the advice, again demanding indoor masks for everyone, regardless of immunization status.
Wake County currently only requires masks in county buildings, but a mask warrant goes into effect in Durham on Monday at 5 p.m.
Even people who are fully vaccinated can contract COVID-19, but their symptoms are unlikely to become severe, Jessica Dixon, infectious disease specialist at WakeMed, told WRAL News.
As cases rise, health officials are still urging people to get vaccinated.
“Post-vaccination infections are still incredibly rare when you look at the full spectrum of infections that exist in the total number of people vaccinated,” Dixon said. “Very few of them are hospitalized, and of them even fewer go to an intensive care unit. So I think that’s proof that vaccines really do what they were designed to do.”
Even people who have been vaccinated are encouraged to get tested if they have symptoms of cough, fever, loss of taste or smell, or other cold symptoms to prevent the spread of the virus. Find a testing site near you.
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