PHOENIX — It wasn’t too long ago that people were waiting for hours at COVID-19 testing sites around the Valley, but now some of them are near empty.
Earlier this month you could expect an orchestra of cars waiting for a test at South Mountain Community College with waiting times of up to 10 hours.
The Arizona Department of Health Services is reporting some of the lowest testing numbers yet those marathon lines have vanished at surge testing sites.
"Initially, we were doing two days in the week, now we're up to five days," said Lab 24 Territory Manager Marsha Wood. Wood attributes the drop in long lines at sites to an improved testing system along with an increase in testing sites around the valley.
When asked why testing numbers have appeared lower, ADHS released this statement to 12 News:
"In order to provide data that is updated daily on our dashboard, our partners report to us on a daily basis, with some large commercial laboratories transmitting data several times a day. Because we are reporting the data on a daily basis, labs may miss the cutoff to post for the next day from time to time. This does not mean that the lab failed to report their data; the data will be included in the following day’s update.
Given the nature of surveillance data and the daily updates, fluctuations in the number of cases or laboratory tests reported per day are expected. ADHS has routine communications with laboratories across the state, and we are working with them to identify potential barriers that prevent them from reporting before the cutoff. When these fluctuations occur, ADHS provides additional context, such as not all files were processed by the internal deadline, to help Arizonans understand the numbers that are being reported."
Nonetheless, the lower number of testing is concerning to physicians like Dr. Andrew Carroll. "We're seeing less testing overall but the main number to really key in on is that overall positive test rate."
Arizona continues to see one of the highest positive test rates in the country with an average of 24% of those tested for the virus yielding a positive result in the last seven days.
Dr. Andrew Carroll says it's possible people are becoming what he calls "COVID Fatigued" but that testing everyone even those without symptoms should be a priority.
"What we really want to do is reach out to people without symptoms and get those people tested because to more we test our positivity rate will go down."
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