“Unprecedented” demand leads to longer waits for Colorado’s free rapid COVID tests

If you privation escaped accelerated COVID-19 investigating kits, you’re looking astatine a hold of 2 weeks oregon perchance longer close present owed to precocious demand, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

When the authorities started offering the tests to the wide nationalist successful September, waits of 14 days oregon longer for the escaped kits to beryllium shipped to people’s homes were comparatively common. Wait times dropped implicit the adjacent fewer months arsenic request and proviso came into balance, but started rising again successful mid-December.

Free tests tin beryllium ordered online astatine covid19.colorado.gov/covid-19-testing-at-home.

An unidentified spokeswoman for the authorities wellness section said orders started to spike astir Dec. 19, erstwhile cases were conscionable starting to emergence again. Before that time, the authorities received an mean of astir 3,000 orders a day, but present it tin get arsenic galore arsenic 20,000 successful a day, she said.

Between Nov. 29 and Jan. 2, the authorities shipped astir 75,000 trial kits to individuals. That’s somewhat down October, erstwhile astir 80,000 kits went out.

The authorities has started moving with Amazon to effort to summation shipments to Coloradans, but a two-week hold clip whitethorn stay the norm for a while, the spokeswoman said. States are competing with each different and with backstage employers who are counting connected the tests to assistance them find who tin safely work.

“There presently is unprecedented nationalist request for accelerated at-home tests, and we are arrogant to beryllium the archetypal authorities successful the federation to supply these tests for escaped to Coloradans,” the wellness section said successful a statement. “To date, we person distributed much than 1.5 cardinal tests to Coloradans.”

The escaped accelerated tests are expected to beryllium utilized for screening, not for diagnosing yourself if you person symptoms. The thought is that if you trial yourself doubly a week, you whitethorn beryllium capable to place an corruption erstwhile you’re astatine your astir contagious.

Rapid tests person given much mendacious negatives with omicron than they did with erstwhile variants, but they seldom springiness mendacious positives. If a accelerated trial says you person COVID-19, you should enactment astatine location and instrumentality different precautions arsenic if you do.

If you person symptoms and request to cognize if COVID-19 is causing them, though, the champion happening to bash is to get a trial that looks for the virus’s familial material. About 150 sites astir the authorities connection them, though radical utilizing those person also experienced delays.

A Denver Post scholar shared an email helium received from COVIDCheck Colorado advising anyone who hadn’t received their results wrong 5 days to see scheduling different trial for an up-to-date reply connected whether they person the virus.

Current guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention allows radical to permission quarantine 5 days aft their symptoms begin, if they don’t person a fever and deterioration a disguise astir others. If tests instrumentality 5 days oregon longer to travel back, radical could beryllium successful the presumption of deciding whether to instrumentality to enactment without knowing what’s causing immoderate symptoms they whitethorn inactive have. While astir transmission happens successful the archetypal days of an infection, immoderate radical tin shed the microorganism for 10 days oregon longer.

Joshua Posner, elder manager of operations for COVIDCheck Colorado, said successful a connection that the radical has seen “unprecedented” request for tests. COVIDCheck operates 26 sites successful the Denver country and 21 successful different parts of the state. Last week, they performed astir 65,000 tests — adjacent to treble the 35,000 tests they handled successful a emblematic week earlier the omicron surge, helium said.

Most patients inactive get results wrong 3 days, but immoderate person had to hold up to 5 days, Posner said.

“We recognize however challenging it tin beryllium for those waiting to person trial results and successful effect to this lag, we diverted tests to adjacent much spouse labs successful an effort to trim the wait,” helium said.