Demand for COVID testing grows as people prepare for New Year’s Eve celebrations

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — As we prepare to ring in the new year the Omicron variant is causing Covid cases to spike throughout the country and across Florida.

Hundreds of people in our community are looking for take-home tests or waiting hours in line trying to get covid ahead of this weekend’s planned celebrations.

Covid-19 tests are in high demand this holiday season, especially as folks get ready to ring in 2022.

“This is a time of year when people want to be around their family members. They want to be out they want to be celebrating. They’re not at work so we’re seeing large amounts of people congregate and that’s a dangerous thing,” Dr. Matthew Thompson, current coo & co-founder of Telescope Health said.

That’s left many people hunting for take-home covid-19 tests or waiting in line for hours.

Telescope Health said the demand for a Covid-19 test has really gone up. The company said a week ago the Neptune Beach testing site was seeing around 50 people, not now it’s seeing about 500 people a day.

Our Action News Jax Sky Vision drone flew over the testing site to show you cars wrapped around the old K-Mart building.

There were so many people on Thursday needing a test that Telescope Heath along Neptune Beach Police started directing traffic opening up these additional overflow lines.

Thompson said if people do head out for New Year’s Eve they need to take precautions.

“This is still an important time to continue to reduce your risk. Wear your mask. If you are sick, get tested. If you have symptoms or have been exposed get tested and all those things layer together to reduce your risk of transmitting to someone else and getting covid as well,” Dr. Thompson said.

When we reached out to the City of Jacksonville to ask if it would open up more testing sites and a spokesperson said that city council would first need to get approval to fund it and right now city council members are on break.

Thompson told Action News Jax he expects these testing sites to be busy next week too after the New Year’s holiday.

“This is really a perfect storm and Omicron has quickly taken over as the major variant and it is highly transmissible,” Dr. Thompson said.

As a reminder, the city-run sites will be closed Friday on New Year’s Eve.

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