Patients across the country seeking their COVID-19 test results have reported long wait times, causing heavy concern about whether or not they have the coronavirus and whether or not they’ll spread it elsewhere. But why is it taking so long?
Right now, people in hospitals receive their test results within one day, according to Kaiser Health News.
Those who get tested at urgent care centers, health centers, pharmacies, drive-thrus and walk-up sites are waiting a week or more.
In the spring, it took only three or four days to get the results.
This can create heavy issues for people to deal with.
“The problems mean patients and their physicians don’t have information necessary to know whether to change their behavior. Health experts advise people to act as if they have COVID-19 while waiting — meaning to self-quarantine and limit exposure to others. But they acknowledge that’s not realistic if people have to wait a week or more,” according to Kaiser Health News.
It’s unclear why COVID-19 test results take so long. Companies face different struggles. And it’s possible that increased testing has led to increased wait times, too, The Wall Street Journal reports.
LabCorp, BioReference Laboratories and Quest Diagnostics have had to ramp up testing with so many more requests, which has led to a delay.
“It’s volume and capacity,” Quest Diagnostics spokeswoman Kimberly Gorode told Newsday. “We can run about 115,000 tests a day. ... It’s not lab-specific. It’s a national issue. We are just trying to keep up.”
Julie Hall, 48, of Chantilly, Virginia, got a test on June 27. She didn’t receive test results until July 3.
“It was awful and terrible because of the unknowns and not knowing if you exposed someone else,” she told Kaiser Health News. “Whenever you would sneeze, someone would say ‘COVID’ even though you feel completely fine.”