COVID Testing Backlogged in Florida Counties

You may or may not agree with her politically, but Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D) is right about how "critical" it is that the COVID-19 test  "remain free and accessible" to everyone. Rep. Wasserman Schultz is once against urging Americans who may have come in contact with someone that has the virus, not to hesitate to get tested.

COVID-19 testing is available, but not how it was several months ago. In Broward County, Florida,  there are only 1 0r 2 county locations, outside of your local Walgreens or CVS, that are doing the tested.

This past weekend, my family scrambled to get everyone tested after a relative fell sick with COVID the week before. We went to two closed facilities in the county, one was closed down for hours due to lightning in the area, the other only opened during the workweek.

We called Walgreens and opted to schedule a testing appointment for the very same day, but the website only allowed for next-day appointments. Unfortunately, we were only allowed to get tested the following Monday.

Fortunately for us, we called our local Walgreens and told them about the testing problem we faced and they made some room for us later in the day on Saturday to test the entire family.

Test results came in within the hour and we all tested negative. I repeated the process Monday and the same results came back. Thank God!

The problem here is businesses like CVC or Walgreens are having a hard time keeping up with the demand are have limited personnel to help administer the tests and vaccines, all while doing their everyday job at those respective pharmacies.

One pharmacist told us that the normal 24 turnaround time is not pushing 72 hours.

Broward and Dade Counties may need a little help from the state to keep up with the demand. This is Florida and during summer we are accustomed to those lightning-filled thunderstorms, so it would be well-advised to make sure that testing sites are indoors so that they don't have to shut down as a result of lightning being in the vicinity.