Local demand for COVID testing skyrockets as delta variant spreads

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - When COVID cases dipped over the summer, testing sites started closing and scaling back their hours. Now you can still get tested but the demand is growing and you have to schedule an appointment.

MedNow offers tests at all four of their locations. The first available appointment at the site on Washington Road is Saturday.

During the peak of COVID, the MedNow Washington Road vaccination site parking lot was full, and inside was crowded with people in and out getting COVID tests. Then it slowed down so much they closed the site. But now the demand is high again.

With the delta variant spreading through school hallways, your kids might be more at risk than before.

“There have been some estimates that now we’re seeing two or three times the number of kids in school impacted compared to a year ago,” said Dr. Rodger MacArthur, infectious disease expert at Augusta University Health.

Effects of the quicker and more easily spread delta variant are showing up in hospitals and testing sites, too.

“For whatever reason, the delta variant is capable of causing more severe disease in kids. We’re certainly seeing more children, and more young adults, being hospitalized than we did originally,” he said.

Thousands of kids are quarantined across the CSRA, But MacArthur says not everyone needs to run out and get swabbed.

“Someone who believes that she has come in with somebody with COVID-19 does not need to get tested, as long as she is without symptom,” he said.

But if you do have symptoms, there are a couple different test options out there.

“What the CDC recommends, in general, are the nucleic acid base tests so the PCR tests,” he said.

That’s the deep nose swab. He says it’s the most accurate and most sensitive. Another option is the rapid test, still good just not as accurate. You might have also noticed tests on shelves at drug stores. He says those are more likely to lead to false negatives if done improperly.

“Take-home tests for other viruses, whether it’s HIV or something else, tend not to be as good,” he said.

So how do you know when you need to get tested? MacArthur says within 24 hours after symptoms develop, you should try to book an appointment. But be patient; it still might be days before you can actually receive the results.

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