Long Lines for Tests Frustrate New Yorkers
A health-care worker administers a Covid-19 test at a mobile site near Washington Square Park in New York’s Greenwich Village.
Photographer: Angus Mordant/BloombergHere’s the latest news from the pandemic.
New Yorkers are used to waiting in lines, for everything from bagels to discount tickets for Broadway shows. But not for three hours or more.
The arrival of the omicron variant caught city officials off guard, overwhelming testing capacity just as residents of the biggest U.S. city were getting set to travel for the winter holidays. In addition to spending hours in the cold for a test, many are waiting days to receive their results.
“It is disappointing,” says Jessica Justman, an associate professor of medicine in epidemiology at Columbia Mailman School of Public Health. “Especially because we’ve been there before in the first part of this pandemic.”
The seven-day average of testing across the city has more than tripled since a low in July, to about 90,000 molecular and 30,000 rapid antigen tests on Dec. 19. Meanwhile, test results returned within one day fell to 54.8% on Dec. 11, down from 76% in July, according to the latest data available from the city.