Photo: Wendy Wilde
(Des Moines, IA). — With rising Covid numbers in Iowa, and very high numbers in Polk County, getting a Covid test right now is not quick and easy. The free State of Iowa test kits take several days to come in the mail, and then several days more to mail a saliva sample to the lab and get the results back.
Most drive-thru pharmacy testing sites were booking appointments a couple days out. One that did offer same-day testing turned people with appointments away, saying they ran out of test kits.
A private lab in West Des Moines using a vacant bank building as a testing location had dozens of cars snaking around other businesses in the parking lot, with people waiting more than two-and-a-half hours for their tests. They were same-day appointments and test results from the rapid test come in about two hours.
Some of the people in the line of cars were sick, some were running fevers, others tell WHO Radio News they’d been exposed but were not sick, and would keep their spot in line for the test no matter how long it takes.