On Wednesday, Austin Public Health sites were testing record numbers of people, while Travis County Community Centers ran out of at-home COVID-19 test kits.
AUSTIN, Texas — With Christmas this weekend and the omicron variant spreading, people in Central Texas are trying to get tested for COVID-19, but it has proven to be difficult. Many places have booked up their appointments and others have completely run out of tests.
Wednesday was the last day of testing ahead of the holiday weekend at Austin Public Health’s two testing sites at the Travis County Expo Center and the Dove Springs Recreation Center, and the lines were long.
At the two APH sites, they administered 1,787 tests on Monday and Tuesday and expected to administer more than 1,000 tests on Wednesday alone. Car after car was lined up at the Travis County Expo Center for drive-thru testing on Wednesday.
“We’re averaging about 160 per hour, and that’s completely outrageous. That’s something we’ve never done before,” said Stephanie Crookham, incident commander at Austin Public Health’s Travis County Expo testing site.
Crookham and her team at the testing site were working hard to meet the demand.
“It’s stressful. I told my staff this morning, ‘No one can freak out. That’s my job,’” said Crookham. “You all do your stuff, task at hand. And then I’ll worry behind the scenes and put out fires.”
Luckily, there weren’t many fires to put out as things were running smooth, even with a massive influx of people.
“Last week, I mean, we were averaging maybe 50 to 70 cars a day. Yesterday we did 502. Today we’re projected to do 700-plus,” explained Crookham.
Since Wednesday was the last day the APH testing sites were open before the holiday, they knew it would be a busy day. They expanded the site to fit more cars and added more workers to swab noses and register people who didn’t make appointments.
“I just kept requesting more people, any more bodies,” shared Crookham. “And so they brought them out here and it’s working really, really well.”
One thing they were not short on was tests. They received 6,000 on Monday and have tests set aside for next week, but that is not the case for some other testing resources in Central Texas.
Hector Nieto, public information officer with Travis County, said its community centers ran out of tests around 10 a.m. on Wednesday morning, even though they were supposed to be open until 1 p.m. They said after they announced they had at-home test kits available on Tuesday, people jumped on the opportunity to grab one. Some people even said phone lines got backed up due to the high number of people calling.
Travis County Community Centers received 2,100 test kits at the end of November and started distributing the kits to food pantry clients. In less than 24 hours, they say the Community Centers distributed 1,362 test kits.
“We knew the omicron variant was going to be a factor in our community and we knew it would cause a strain in the system, and this is one of those strains,” said Nieto. “This is why we wanted our public to get tested in advance and be prepared.”
As of right now, they do not have tests available for people to pick up the week of Dec. 27, but are placing an order for more.
If you choose to go to one of the APH testing sites next week, they have tests ready for you, but do ask that you make an appointment. But, if you don’t, they will still test anyone who shows up during their hours of operation.
Next week, the two APH test sites will be open Dec. 27 to Dec. 30 from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.