Virtual waiting rooms, long car lines: COVID-19 test demand surges in Lexington
Amid a surge in demand for COVID-19 tests, vehicles were lined up Monday at a testing site on the University of Kentucky’s campus.
The testing site is put on by Wild Health, a company which has offered testing in Lexington for much of the duration of the pandemic. The company has seen its testing demand grow two-to-three times larger, according to Dr. Luke Murray from Wild Health.
“Our appointments are totally booked and it happened in a matter of (two to three) days,” Murray said. “... We have expanded hours until as late as 10 p.m. and expanded our staffing to meet demand.”
But Wild Health is still in the middle of trying to adjust to accommodate the surge. Testing rates are three-to-four times higher in December than they were in November. Wild Health is running nearly as many tests as it did at the height of the COVID-19 Delta variant.
Other test providers are dealing with surges of their own.
“As the nation experiences a surge in COVID-19 cases coinciding with the holidays, we are seeing unprecedented demand for related testing and vaccine services and products,” said Kris Lathan, a spokesperson for Walgreens. “We remain committed to offering convenient access to COVID-19 vaccinations and testing services and products that are critical to helping protect our communities.”
Walgreens offers testing at several Lexington locations, but the company’s website experienced “temporary outages” on some of its web applications, which caused the COVID-19 test scheduling program to have problems Monday. Those trying to get a test were kicked into a virtual waiting room due to “exceptional demand,” according to the website.
Additionally, CVS acknowledged a “surge” in demand for at-home COVID-19 test kits. The company sells five over-the-counter tests and a spokesperson said the company was working “around the clock to provide our stores with inventory.”
“To ensure equitable access to tests both in store and digitally, we’ve added a limit of six test kits per purchase,” said Tara Burke, a CVS spokesperson. “Due to a recent surge in demand, and to retain community-based access to tests in our stores, there may be temporary out-of-stocks for these products on CVS.com.”
Community testing options around Lexington
Wild Health’s website still showed appointments available for scheduling despite the increased demand. Wild Health’s College Way testing site is open to the general public and testing is open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., according to the company’s website. Appointments can be scheduled at lexington.wildhealth.com.
Bluewater Diagnostics also offers community testing at the Bluegrass Area Development District at 699 Perimeter Drive and Consolidated Baptist Church at 1625 Russell Cave Road, according to the company’s website. The Consolidated Baptist Church test site is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. The Bluegrass Area Development District site is open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Fridays.
Appointments can be scheduled at Bluewaterdx.com.
Walgreens offers COVID-19 testing at various locations in Lexington, but the company appeared to have website scheduling issues Monday. Those wanting to get tested can go to Walgreens.com to try to schedule an appointment.
Only one Kroger location in Lexington had any available appointments for Tuesday, according to the company’s website. Other locations had appointments available later in the week. Appointments can be scheduled at thelittleclinic.com.
CVS also only had one Lexington location which had appointments available Tuesday. Appointments for Tuesday or later in the week can be scheduled at CVS.com.
None of the Urgent Care centers in Lexington had testing appointments available earlier than Wednesday this week, according to Urgent Care’s website. Tests can be scheduled at urgentcareofky.com.
MedixDx offers testing at 3191 Beaumont Centre Circle with no appointments needed, according to the company’s website. However, those wanting to get tested do have to register online ahead of time at medixdx.com.
Redding Drug at 431 Redding Road had appointments available Tuesday, according to the pharmacy’s website. Appointments can be scheduled at Reddingdrug.com.
Lexington testing for school students, teachers, staff
Several test providers are providing testing sites exclusively for those with ties to local Pre-K-12 schools.
Some of those test sites don’t require an appointment. Bluewater Diagnostics is providing testing at Winburn Middle School at 1060 Winburn Drive on Mondays. The company also has testing at Leestown Middle School at 2010 Leestown Road on Wednesdays and testing at Frederick Douglass High School at 2000 Winchester Road on Fridays.
Each test site is open from 7 to 9 a.m., according to the Fayette County Public Schools website.
Labtox also provides several testing options:
- Mondays and Wednesdays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Dixie Magnet Elementary, 1940 Eastland Pkwy.
- Tuesdays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Frederick Douglass High School, 2000 Winchester Road.
- Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Lafayette High School, 401 Reed Lane.
- Fridays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Southern Middle School, 400 Wilson Downing Road.
- Weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Sayre Christian Village, 3775 Belleau Wood Drive.
Wild Health also has testing available for Pre-K-12 students, school staff, teachers and family members at the Fayette County Public Schools building at 100 Midland Avenue. testing is also available for the same individuals at Immanuel Baptist Church at 2261 Armstrong Mill Road and the Lexington Legends parking lot at 2017 Legends Lane.
Wild Health testing requires an appointment, which can be scheduled at lexington.wildhealth.com.
Testing for veterans
Local military veterans can schedule an appointment through the Lexington VA Health Care system by calling (859) 233-4511.
This story was originally published December 28, 2021 at 7:25 AM.